Twenty teenage boys received a crash course in firefighting during the Blandford-Blenheim Fire Service’s third annual Camp 85 program, which was held from Tuesday, July 8 to Saturday, July 12, 2025.
The free interactive day camp originally started back in 2023 as a way to give youth between the ages of 14 and 18 the opportunity to gain skills associated with firefighting, and to learn more about what it takes to pursue a career in the field.
“It really gives the youth some experience of what it’s like to be a firefighter. They get to learn some new skills, see that it’s an attainable career opportunity,” said Chief Drew Davidson, Director of Fire and Protective Services. “On top of that, during one of the days we also involve Oxford Paramedic Services and the OPP, and that kind of covers the whole gamut of emergency services. For some of these kids, their dream is to be an officer or a paramedic, and so that’s a great addition because they were able to ask different questions as well.”
While the program was originally designed for young women, the camp has continued to evolve and it was decided late last year that the fire department would alternate each year between boys and girls, allowing them equal opportunities to gain hands-on experience.
“This was the first year that we had the boys out for camp, but we also had seven of the girls from the last two years come out to help as leaders and to demonstrate each of the scenarios before the boys went through it, so that was neat,” said Davidson.
At the start of the program, Campers were split into four platoons of five and began each day with a morning workout to warm up before moving onto their training evolutions.
Throughout the week, participants rotated each day between three of the township’s four fire stations including Drumbo Fire Station #82, Plattsville Fire Station #83 and Bright Fire Station #84, learning something new from each location.
“Day one is a lot of hose work; they learn how to carry the hose properly, actually get to hook up to a fire hydrant and they spray the hose. Day two, which was in Bright, was all about forceful entry and ventilation so we had a door prop for them to go through, we had a roof prop to simulate cutting on a roof, and they also got to climb the ladder,” explained Davidson. “Day three was over in Drumbo, and that’s kind of the really fun one that everyone looks forward to because it’s our auto-extrication day where they got to use the jaws of life. We had four cars donated by Cathcart Auto Parts and so each platoon got a car and they spent the day learning how to properly take a vehicle apart. Day four they were back at Plattsville and that was our search and rescue day so they got to use the air-paks, smash through walls, and go through an escape maze…things like that.”
Finally, after four long days in the heat, campers had the opportunity to show off a bit of what they learned to their families and officially graduate from the program.
“Our MPP for Oxford, Ernie Hardeman, was at the graduation so that was a nice little surprise to have him there and we gave all the kids their certificates,” said Davidson. “Earlier that day we also had each platoon go through the obstacle course, kind of like what they did on day four, and we have this tradition where the platoon with the fastest time gets to pull the air horn on the pumper to officially close out camp, so we did that after the graduation too.”
Davidson said that one of his favourite parts of the camp is getting to look around each year and see how quickly the friendships develop between participants.
“At the beginning, not many of them really know each other outside of camp and so they’re kind of shy and they’re not really sure of each other, but man, do they ever come together to cheer each other on in just four quick days,” he said. “During the break or at lunch, I like to step back because I get to see that they aren’t by themselves, they’re sitting together and talking to each other and so that’s my favourite part; it’s just so great to see the camaraderie between everybody because here’s a lot of work that goes into putting this together beforehand, and so to see it all come together and to see the smiling faces, it means the world to me.”
Davidson added that camp just wouldn’t be possible without the support of the community.
“I have to thank all of the firefighters who came out to help as instructors. They gave up time from work or took vacation days to help out and they’re just amazing. It’s nice to see them all come together like that,” he said. “I want to thank our sponsors for all their donations too, be it monetary or in the way of food or the cars… we couldn’t do this without them either. I also want to mention the support we have from our Council too; we came to them with this idea three years ago and they basically said, ‘just tell us which week it is and we’ll be there to support it,’ so I’m grateful to have support from that end too. It really takes the community to put on this event and it’s all of those people that make it go around and make it happen.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
