BARAGA — Teaching children how to properly deal with emergency situations can save lives. That is exactly why first responders teamed up to hold Camp 911.

Camp 911 has been providing safety information to children since the mid-90’s.

The two-day camp focuses on teaching children what to do in case of fire, water or electrical emergencies. By teaching kids how to respond before first responders come, they could potentially help save lives.

“If someone doesn’t start CPR before the arrival of an ambulance, our efforts are sometimes futile,” said Bay Ambulance Director Gary Wadaga. “Somebody doesn’t take action at a fire, it progresses to full-blown house fire and people lose everything. It all ties together at the end with prevention and then helping an individual if they get into a bad situation.”

There are four stations ran by various emergency personnel. The children got to extinguish a live fire, crawl through a house filled with artificial smoke, discuss water safety with the Coast Guard and listen to a presentation by UPPCO regarding electrical safety.

The skills learned at the camp can be directly applied to real life situations.

“We had an incident the day after one our Camp 911’s where a young kid recognized they had a fire in the attic,” Wadaga added. “At the end of the program, they go home with a smoke alarm, a fire extinguisher, a bike helmet, a fanny pack full of first aid supplies. So he was able to use some of the tools he received at Camp 911 and actually saved their house.”

The camp is hosted by Bay Ambulance but is assisted by several local first responder teams.