* * * * *
The boys of the Cambridge Manual Training School have a new lesson which
has become very popular with them.
This is a fire drill.
The pupils are taught to go through the whole process of fighting a fire
in the same way that the firemen do.
Before the boys are allowed to join the fire battalion they have to be
drilled, taught to march, and are obliged to attend lectures on surgery,
and how to help injured people until the doctor comes.
After the boys have gone through this first course of study, they begin
their real fireman's training. They attend more lectures in which they
learn how to handle the various ladders and machines which firemen use.
They have to learn how a fire engine is put together, what are the uses of
every wheel and valve, and how to clean and care for each separate part of
the engine; and when they are quite familiar with the various things used
by firemen they pass on to the last stage of training.
This begins on March 1st, and from this time on the work is done out of
doors.
A wooden building forty feet high, and provided with doors and windows
exactly like a three-story house, is put up in the schoolyard, and it is
with this building that the lessons are given.
Every Thursday afternoon an imaginary fire takes place in it. The hose is
run out, the ladders are raised, and the lads go to work with a will,
saving imaginary lives, and fighting imaginary flames.
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