Firefighting fantasies

Twelve-year-old Christopher Camarillo imagined he was a heroic firefighter battling a blaze inside a New York City skyscraper.

Eleven-year-old Jacob Lahodny from Newport Beach imagined he was sending a blast of water through a window into a burning building.

Others looked at the wide “fog” pattern from the water blasting out of the fire hose as a force field, protecting them from the deadly flames.

Whoever they imagined they were Tuesday morning, they were definitely kids having a fun summer morning at the Newport Beach Junior Firefighters Camp at Mariners Park.

“This was my first year, but all my friends have done it,” Christopher said.

In what is traditionally one of the highlights of the five-day summer camp, 18 Orange County kids learned what it’s like to be a firefighter and blast the water into the flames.

Though they were at a park and shooting at wooden targets, to the kids it didn’t matter.

Tuesday they learned how to properly roll and unroll a fire hose quickly, and just how much water a fire hose can pump out and how fast.

The camp teaches kids the basics of First Aid, fire prevention and how to keep your house prepared for a disaster. Participants are also given homework assignments like counting the fire alarms in a home and checking the batteries. If they don’t have enough, or need new batteries, well, the parents just might have a homework assignment, too.

Katie Groat, 11, was at the camp last year and has paid to join the camp next week, too. Though it’s the same every time, it doesn’t mean it’s any less fun, she said.

“It’s interesting. The things that I’ve learned, I have used them,” she said. “I was new in school last year, and I made a lot of friends here. It was a fun summer that I’ll always remember.”

The fire department is hosting one last camp next week from 9 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday at Mariners Park for kids 9 to 13 years old. The camp is $100 to join and there are still openings. For more information or to sign up, call Jennifer Schulz at (949) 644-3110.