Young firefighters of the future?

Both St Maurice’s and Cumbernauld high schools sent pupils to the Greenfaulds-based depot to undertake Scottish Fire and Rescue Services’s Fire Reach Course.

Throughout their week-long attendance, the pupils learned some valuable lessons about teamwork, leadership and communication, while gaining an insight into firefighting.

As an additional benefit, course leaders managed to secure a guest appearance from Clyde Football Club’s commercial director Gary Ballantyne who attended the end of week presentation ceremony.

Gary presented the young participants with their certificates and some framed photographs as a nice memento of the course, and dished out some free season tickets for good measure!

He said: “Clyde FC are delighted to be working in partnership with the fire service and greatly appreciate the opportunity for the students in their course that will undoubtedly provide them with invaluable experience and appreciation of potential fire hazards. As a community club, we were pleased to reward each student with a season ticket book for the reminder of the season for all their hard work and endeavours.’’

The timing of the course also fitted into Scottish Fire and Rescue’s North Lanarkshire festive safety action plan with the pupils learning fire safety tips to take home and share with their families.

Having a working smoke alarm was top of the list.

SFRS group manager Paul Devlin urged readers to act now for safety’s sake.

He said: “We offer a free home safety visit which is straightforward, takes around 30 minutes and involves a risk assessment plus the provision of a free alarm and advice.’’

To make an appointment with the firefighters call freefone 0800 0731 999.