Dakota Johnson, 1st place winner
POCAHONTAS, AR May 13—On Tuesday, May 4, Black River Technical College hosted the first annual Firefighter Games. Approximately 80 students from Cave City, Corning, Greene County Tech, Marmaduke, Paragould, Pocahontas, and Sloan Hendrix gathered on the Pocahontas campus to enjoy the festivities.
Around 40 students competed in two scored firefighter drills: the Drill Tower Event and the Driving Simulator Event. For the Drill Tower Event, participants donned firefighter turnouts, correctly attached a firehose, and dragged the hose to the proper position to extinguish the fire. Participants then climbed to the top of the drill tower stairs and returned to the bottom where they used a fire extinguisher simulator to extinguish a fire. During the Driving Simulator Event, students responded to a fire in the fire truck simulator. Participants tried to avoid point deductions for getting lost or committing a moving violation.
As the scores for the events were tallied, the Pocahontas Fire Department provided a barbeque lunch for all participants, and firefighters from Pocahontas, Paragould, and Jonesboro Fire Departments fielded questions from participants interested in the occupation.
Dakota Johnson of Marmaduke High School won 1st place, Camden Wallace of Marmaduke High School won 2nd place, and George Vaughn of Greene County Tech High School won 3rd.
For more information about BRTC’s Fire Science programs, contact Alan Haskins by phone at (870) 248-4000, ext. 4129 or by email at alan.haskins@blackrivertech.edu, visit https://blackrivertech.org/academics/service-programs/fire-training.