Teens fly through fire-training course

The 13-17 year olds took part in the Achieving Respect and Confidence (ARC) course run by South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue, Rotherham Borough Council and other partner agencies including South Yorkshire Police which aims to highlight the consequences of anti-social behaviour.

The course sets out to instill discipline, team spirit, fire safety awareness, life skills and positive values in the young people.

Activities included a self-defence class and fire drills run by firefighters at Rotherham fire station, which hosted the week-long course.

The passing out parade which marked the end of the project was held in front of the youngsters’ families and dignitaries including the Mayor of Rotherham John Foden.

South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue’s youth engagement officer Keith Watts said: “The input from the other agencies has been critical in encouraging these young people to think about their behaviour and through discipline and teamwork make positive choices towards improving their life chances.

“We’ve been running courses like this successfully for several years now and their effectiveness is borne out through a steady reduction in the number of anti-social behaviour-related fires our crews are having to attend.”