City of Winnipeg Fire Fighter since 1990 - Public Education Facilitator

Delivering fire safety education to K-8 children for the past 11 years

Recognized by the City of Winnipeg Fire department in 2000 for outstanding contribution towards fire and life safety education

The day Shane Ferguson helped rescue a five-year old girl from a fire has been burned forever into his memory. While searching for a young child during an early morning house fire in Winnipeg's North End, firefighters found a little girl unconscious where she was hiding under her bed. Sadly, two days later, she died from injuries sustained in that fire. It seems to happen too often that firefighters are on the scene of a tragedy like this one. Tragic endings to fires are the reasons why firefighters are working to promote fire prevention and awareness.

Shane is a firefighter with the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service and is a Public Education Facilitator. He has a special interest in teaching young people about fire safety. Approximately eleven years ago, when his oldest daughter was in pre-school, Shane started giving classroom presentations on a volunteer basis about fire safety and awareness. Shane realized that the demand for fire safety education was high, and the community's demands were not being met. Over the years he has developed a curriculum for Kindergarten to grade 8 students that features lesson plans that are age appropriate.