For the second consecutive year, the Fire Department has welcomed an intern from the University of Bordeaux in France to work on a special project.  This year’s intern, Tony Vidal, 20, along with the Fire Department, has researched and developed Teddy and Tia’s S.A.F.E. team program, a safety education course.  S.A.F.E. team, or Students Against Fire Endangerment team, is geared towards 10- to 14-year-olds and teaches them safety procedures for a variety of potentially dangerous situations.

Using a curriculum designed by Vidal, the S.A.F.E. team program will train students on fire, house, car, bicycle, and drug and alcohol safety.  Students will also receive hands-on basic training on how to perform first aid, including CPR and the Heimlich maneuver, and how to prevent fires and accidents in the Fire Safety House demonstration.  The Fire Safety House is a mobile trailer used to educate the public about accident and fire prevention and possible home hazards.

The courses are designed for about 20 students and last approximately four hours, split into two sessions over the course of a day.  The Fire Department plans to complete at least two courses for Boy and Girl Scouts of America troops in North Las Vegas by the end of the summer.  This program is intended to be continued next summer and will be incorporated into other safety programs offered by the City.

Teaching safety procedures to this age group is particularly important since the leading cause of death of 10- to 14-year-olds in Nevada from 1999 to 2005 is unintentional injuries, such as from motor vehicle traffic, drowning, and fire.  With this program, the City hopes to prevent these tragic, accidental deaths and to teach children how to respond if accidents do occur.

“Our goal is to have students take the lessons they learn in the S.A.F.E. team program and apply them to real-life situations in order to prevent and possibly treat injuries,” North Las Vegas Fire Chief Al Gillespie said.  “This course gives students just a taste of emergency response tactics that will hopefully inspire them to continue on to get certified in CPR and first aid.”

Vidal’s university training program sends students to locations across the globe, including six students to locations throughout the United States.  The program lasts ten weeks in which students must complete a project for their respective fire departments and then present the results for their program at the University of Bordeaux.  At the culmination of his internship, Vidal will return to France in mid-June to present the S.A.F.E. team program to his university with the hope to implement a similar program locally.