Local firefighters are getting geared up for a weekend competition to help launch national fire prevention week.

For the past six years, the Beaufort County Fire Association and Lowe’s Home Improvement have joined forces for Kids Safety Day, held in the store’s parking lot on U.S. Highway 17 North in Washington. Fire engines and ladder trucks, emergency vehicles and more will be on display from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m., giving local children the chance for some hands-on experience with fire/rescue/EMS equipment they usually only see from afar.

“The kids can actually go up and meet the firemen while they don’t have on all the equipment,” said Crystal Marriner, the event’s organizer. Marriner, who is president of the fireman’s association, vice president of the EMS association and a dispatcher for the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, described the event as a great way to bring awareness of fire safety to youngsters in the community.

“That’s so we don’t have to worry about them at home,” Marriner said. “They’re learning about saving a life when there’s an emergency at home.”

The event may be about fire safety, but last year, Marriner bumped up the audience appeal with a firemen’s competition. This year’s competition begins at 10 a.m. and will likely continue through the early afternoon until trophies are handed out to participating county fire departments around 2 p.m.

So far, Bath Volunteer Fire Department, Bunyan VFD, PotashCorp-Aurora’s emergency response team and Belhaven VFD are signed up to face five drills, all of which add to victory for the standout department.

According to Marriner, the drills are as follows: The SCBA (Self-contained Breathing Apparatus) race, in which three members of a department must race to don gear then drag “Rescue Randy,” a 175-pound dummy, 100 feet; the hose hole shot, which involves a kind of modified bowling of a 50-foot rolled hose between two cones; the actual hose bowling, in which firefighters put together a hose, fill it with water, then spray down six cones set up a certain distance away; the command post, in which three blindfolded firefighters must fill a container with water to the best of their ability, guided solely by the voice of the “command” officer; and the bucket brigade, in which firefighters must race to fill a barrel with water, though the barrel comes supplied with holes to make the drill more challenging.

“A lot of it is simulation of what they would actually do in a fire,” Marriner said.

Marriner, who practically grew up in the Sydney firehouse as her father, Jerry Paul, was captain there, said organizing events like these are her way of passing on a family tradition.