This 11-year-old took over as St. John's fire chief. Here's how she spent the day
The St. John's Regional Fire Department got a new chief on Friday.
While she was only on the job for a short time, she had a busy day in her new role.
Chibuokem Iwuala, an 11-year-old student at First Baptist Academy in Mount Pearl, won the honour of being chief for a day in a poster contest for Fire Prevention Week.
"I think it's pretty good," Iwuala said of her poster. "[It said] 'Fire won't wait. Plan your escape.' It's just helping people remember that you shouldn't wait and that you should plan for fires."
Chief Iwuala started her day by catching a ride in a fire truck.
"It was really cool. I love the sirens, it was really loud," she said.
Iwuala said she'd never been in a fire truck before and her friends were pretty impressed when she pulled up outside her school in her new ride.
"[They said] that I have a good life," she said.
From there, Iwuala went to a few fire stations and got to meet the mayors of St. John's, Mount Pearl and Paradise.
Iwuala said she was excited to take on the job because of the work firefighters do.
"I really admire firemen and their work and how they help people when they haven't met them yet. I really love that,"
Fire Insp. Cara Pardy of the St. John's department said Iwuala's poster was chosen from about 400 submissions.
"Her poster had a lot of bright colours, so it's very attractive to look at, and she had a lot of good fire safety messages there," she said.
"We look for all of those things to know that she's learning something from it."
According to Pardy, it wasn't just the new chief who had a fun day.
"It's a great day all around, it's exciting, it's exhausting and we absolutely love it. We look forward to this day every single year. So much fun for us."
