Showered with many skills

Why, on a cloudless summer day with the blazing sun above and not a solitary gust of wind to cool them, would kids voluntarily roll up hoses half their weight and put on oppressive, heavy uniforms?

Simple. “Because it’s fun,” the kids at Mariners Park in Newport Beach explained.

Maybe being showered by a fire hose, competing for who can put on a firefighter uniform the fastest, and touring a fire station also have something to do with it.

Twenty local children are finishing up the Newport Beach Fire Department’s Junior Firefighter Camp today, a three-day camp for children 9 to 13 that introduces them to the firefighting profession while teaching them about fire safety and basic first aid.

“We mix a lot of the fun stuff — messing with the hose and squirting the water — with lesson plans,” paramedic Bryan Carter said. “When [firefighters] go to a class, you can’t really show them everything in a half hour. Here we have plenty of time, it’s instructive, they can learn to be a firefighter.”

But summer is not the time for kids to be stuck behind a desk, sweating over a test about what they’ve learned. They’d rather their sweat-equity come from hands-on experience.

Siblings Jay, 10, and Katherine Locey, 9, of Huntington Beach can attest to that — this is their second year in Junior Firefighters.

“I liked it the first time, so I wanted to come again,” Jay said, hair matted wet from the fire hose soaking minutes earlier. “Last year, my favorite part was the relay races because they were challenging and they kind of tested my skills.”

Among the skills the elementary-aged children pick up at the camp are how to properly hold and aim a fire hose — tested through target practice — how to roll up the hose, how to quickly put on a firefighter uniform and how to properly use a fire extinguisher.

The kids have also gotten a thrill out of their homework assignment: to make the family review fire escape routes and check fire alarms and extinguishers.

Paramedic Chris Fanti’s highlight is the effect it has on some kids.

“I like the games, that part’s fun too. But it’s the kid that comes in on day one, is super shy, doesn’t want to be here, and then by day three, the kid doesn’t want to go home,” Fanti said. “So now you have a kid who didn’t want to meet anybody, didn’t want to be here. By the time he’s done he’s got new friends and he’s smiling and you can’t get him to leave … just watching them change in three days is by far my favorite part.”

The Junior Firefighters Camp, which takes place twice a summer, will start up again next July, and could be extended to a week long, department officials said.