You read it first here. The Portuguese Emergency services are recruiting 6 year olds and making them march and teaching them discipline!! Hurrah

School of Junior Firemen

HISTORY

In Portugal, volunteer fire departments are established in every town. Even the biggest Portuguese cities have volunteer firefighters operating alongside the career fire service. Well-trained and well-equipped fire departments are based in every Portuguese municipality. Aerial firefighting is widely used, especially in the forest. Video-based fire surveillance and remote monitoring systems are also used along fire surveillance outposts placed in strategic locations.

 

The majority of Bombeiros (Fire and Ambulance staff) are Volunteers. If you drive past many of the fire stations you will see that they have the name of the station and the title Bombeiros Volunteiros.

 

The Volunteer Fire service was founded in 1868. There are around 40,000 firefighters in Portugal although this number also includes the Municipal and Private Fire Services.

 

It is estimated that there are around 13,000 vehicles used by the fire service. In Alvaiázere for example there are 200+ volunteers and a population of around 10,000 people.

 

The main functions of the fire service are to fight fires, provide relief to people involved in fires, floods, accidents and disasters, provide first aid and transportation to injured people and help with prevention, education and technical advice on fire and other disasters. They also deal with getting animals out of swimming pools and wells and clearing fallen trees from roads.

 

THE INTRODUCTION OF JUNIOR FIREFIGHTERS

 

There have been Escola De Infantes de Bombeiros (Fireservice Junior Schools) in Portugal since at least 2002 in some Municipalities of Portugal.

 

It had been realized for some years that there was a lack of new people joining the volunteers as the entry age for a Volunteer Firefighter was 18. The project started with Cadets from age 12 and then included infants starting at 6 years of age.

 

The aim is to give the young people the spirit of camaraderie that exists in Fire Stations and Fire Department, as well as learning about the life and work of the Fire and Ambulance Service in Portugal.

The schools teach many things to the children which include theoretical and practical training in emergency pre-hospital treatment, theoretical and practical fire fighting and discipline in how to march and drill.

 

It is not all hard work though. They also have fun days, visits, rides in some of the equipment and there is plenty of time at the fortnightly meetings to play. Recently Alvaiazere Junior Bombeiros had a visit to Santa Comba Dão to see the helicopter, boats and dive facility they have there.

 

If you have children and they’re not going to Scouts or taking part in local sports activities, check out with your local fire station to see if they have a Junior or Cadet division. There is generally no cost and they are even supplied with uniforms.