The days that a fire brigade would get on a soapbox with a stack of leaflets to provide information are over. That's why the Fryslân Safety Region, together with FireWare, realised a completely new information concept: the Kameleon Race! The Kameleon Race is an educational game with regard to themes in the Fire Safety Life project. The Fire Safety Life Experience of the Fryslân Safety Region provides information in a fun and interactive way.
The Kameleon is a popular Dutch children's book series written by Hotze de Roos. The twins Hielke and Sietse Klinkhamer have all kinds of adventures in their super boat "the Kameleon". The father of Hielke and Sietse is besides blacksmith also commander of the fire brigade ... and of course all adventures take place in Friesland.
The Kameleon Race is based on the book "De kameleon in het zoeklicht" (the Kameleon in the searchlight). In this book there is a fire in a farm, to extinguish the fire, the water tender is driven on a pram and pushed to the site of the incident by the kameleon.
Visitors are challenged to answer questions about the themes in the Fire Safety Life project. Think of questions concerning pan fires, smoke detectors, CO, chimney fires and having a flight plan. With a good answer, the kameleon goes two steps forward, with a wrong answer only one step .... Which participant arrives first at the seat of fire with "his" Kameleon and can start extinguishing the fire?
The installation is built in an "old" COPI hook arm container. This container has been adjusted with a large hatch in the side, giving the visitors a good view of the Kameleon Race. At the rear of the container, there is room for items of the fire-technical research team. Obviously sufficient storage has also been taken into account. Everything that is needed for a successful information event can be found in this one hook arm container! And the concept is also future-proof: the decor can be easily adjusted to another theme.
The Kameleon Race is a collaboration between the Fryslân Safety Region and FireWare. Most of the work is carried out by people from the 24-hour service of the region. FireWare supports the process with specialist knowledge and components. This saves a lot of costs! All mechanical components and electronics are extremely robust, "Fireproof" as it is called in jargon: from the guide rails to move the Kameleons to the control system and from the screens to the effects. This way, the region can enjoy the installation for many years.
Unique about this installation is that it actively measures the answers given by the visitors. For each topic and question, the percentage of visitors who had this question correct or incorrect is checked. By means of a special logarithm "incorrect" answers are filtered, so that a reliable picture is created about the knowledge of the visitors. A report is automatically drawn up every day and sent by email to the safety region. This makes it possible to plan much more focused actions on the right topics in the future.
The construction has now been completed and the Kameleon Race has already been used quite a bit. The concept fully meets the expectations!
Are you also considering developing a Fireproof Life container or vehicle? Then contact us. We are happy to share our thoughts with you!
