Barbados Today

Scouting is a very engaging activity. It has been said repeatedly that if one truly becomes very involved in the “game” of Scouting, life as currently known would see evidence of change.
Scouting contributes to the lives of youth and volunteers and to their various communities. In our final “Around the World with Scouts” articles we highlight the kinds of training which are given to the boys so that they can become productive citizens.
The beauty of this Scout involvement is that all the Scouts, irrespective of where they are located, are trained to do the same thing — that is, being a good citizen and their brother’s keeper.
In much the same way as Scouts of the Barbados Boy Scouts Association were involved in the fire cadets as sponsored by the Barbados Fire Service where our boys were given specialised training from these officers, three Scouts in Forsyth Country used their training to safely evacuate their homes thanks to training they received from the Forsyth County Fire Department.
The story states that on March 17, Ian O’Dowd, 9, had troop members Anthony and Joseph Jambro, 8, identical twins, overnight at his home and sometime around 6 a.m., Anthony awoke to the smell of smoke. He quickly woke up Joseph and Ian and the boys snapped into action, found Ian’s mother and evacuated the house safely as a group.
“All three of them have learned about exit drills in the home through Boy Scouts and visiting the fire departments,” said Laura Coleman, fire prevention training officer.
The Boy Scouts were recognised with a “Good Citizen Award” April 18 for safely evacuating a house that caught fire.
It is certain that some schools do conduct drills of some sort, but the more this story weighs on the mind, the question which comes to light is: Are our children between the ages of six and nine informed and are aware of what to do in cases of fire? Are the fire drills at schools taken seriously?
The story concluded that the Scouts knew exactly what to do because the children at the school were very aware of emergency drills as their schools practice them at least once a month. With that in mind, it is believed that the recommendation of having the drills beyond the school and into the home, where it can be of use, should be seriously considered.