flyboy553
Oakaholic
I realize a release form is not worth much legally. However, they are priceless when it comes to the landowner's piece of mind. And his willingness to let you cut on his land.
Ted
Ted
I agree with you fully, but I also understand where *SOME* of these people's comments come from.
Thru my fire department, we run a 'Juvenile Fire Setter Intervention Program'. Essentially it is a program for kids under 18 who have maliciously set a fire. Without writing a book here, there are mental health professionals as well as law enforcement and the courts on board. What we do from a fire department perspective is run the kids thru a mini-fire academy. We don't subject them to fighting a full blown structure fire, but they DO have to familiarize themselves with ALL the personal protective equipment firefighters wear, and they have to wear it. They do a 'search and rescue' in a smoke filled structure and drag out the training dummy that weighs 150 pounds. They handle a fully charged hose line and advance it forward in various scenarios; in a house, up a muddy slippery embankment and around and into a motor vehicle. They extinguish a flammable liquids fire with a dry chemical device. And they do all of this in full PPE and SCBA. To say they get a workout is an understatement. But they also develop an appreciation for what we do when they set a fire. And they learn the value of working together in a team. They learn a lot more too, but I think you can see the potential for them to get injured is immense. My point here is, there is no insurance company in their right mind that would condone such activities, much less cover them. Thankfully, we have a forward thinking Chief that can see past liability and strive for a positive outcome. He has decided to take a chance on us, the guys running the program, in return for the potential of turning a few kids in the right direction. If he did not have this attitude, I don't know where the thousand-plus kids we've put thru this program would be today. I guess sometimes you just gotta say the heck with liability.
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