What should be used to extinguish clothing burning on a person? How many stars are on the shoulder board of a senior aspirant in the State Fire Service? What do we use to extinguish Class ABC fires? Primary school, lower-secondary school and upper-secondary school students answered, among other things, such questions during the district-level qualifiers for the National Fire Knowledge Tournament, held on 31 March in the gymnasium of the Mechanical School Complex.
The participants competed in three groups. The first places in their categories were won by:
- primary school: Marcin Jasiński
- lower-secondary school: Mateusz Kopeć
- upper-secondary school: Łukasz Nowakowski.
No participant went home empty-handed. In addition, the organizers rewarded the youngest participant in the tournament – Ewa Trościńska.
The awards were funded by Bolesławiec County Head Cezary Przybylski, Gromadka commune head Dariusz Pawliszczy, the Bolesławiec City Council, Jan Cołokidzi, the State Fire Service, the Chocianów and Węgliniec Forest Districts, and the District Board of the Volunteer Fire Service.
“We select the questions ourselves. We try to make them a little more difficult and adapt them to the standards of the provincial tournament,” says Zbigniew Bożęcki, president of the District Branch Board of the Association of Volunteer Fire Brigades of the Republic of Poland. – “If we prepared easy questions, someone who won the district qualifiers might not be able to cope at the next stage.” This method has proved very effective. One of the participants in the district tournament qualified for the national final twice. Once, she was one point short of taking third place.
Is it worth organizing such tournaments? Zbigniew Bożęcki has no doubts: “We are pleased that children are beginning to gain fire safety knowledge. It helps in life. Perhaps this means there are fewer fires and fewer arson attacks?” Moreover, as the president himself admits, one of the aims of the tournament is to get young people interested in the fire service. A large proportion of this year’s contestants are members of youth fire brigades. “It pays off,” adds Bożęcki.
The three winners of Monday’s qualifiers will represent our county at the provincial level.
(information from the County Office/GA)