Fun with ladders and hoses at Lynnwood firefighting camp

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, July 25, 2017

EVERETT — It’s the summer before fifth grade, and that means sports tournaments and visits with distant family.

Friends Sarah Stein and Rikki Miller have been playing basketball and soccer.

The 10-year-olds found yet another way to stay busy before classes resume at Cathcart Elementary: They went to firefighting camp.

Rikki’s father, Kevin, is a paramedic at the Lynnwood Fire Department. The department started a day camp for children in summer 2015. There’s plenty of fun, but also learning and teamwork. The third year of camp ran last week in south Everett, at Fire District 1 headquarters.

Rikki went to camp in 2016. This year, she got to work on persuading Sarah. Next was Sarah’s mother.

Rikki had her reasons: climbing a big fire truck ladder, descending from a second-story window with nylon ropes and spraying fire hoses.

Another firefighting camp favorite involves a kind of hockey using hoses and a mop bucket.

“I think I’m really going to like tomorrow,” Sarah said on Day 3 of 4. “It’s competition day.”

Sarah was a little nervous about climbing the ladder that’s attached to the fire truck.

“It’s kind of wiggly and when you look down, there are tiny, tiny bars you have to step on,” she said.

Then she volunteered for ladder duty a few more times.

Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @rikkiking.