Local volunteer firefighters assembled, coffees in hand, for a briefing on a town-wide fire drill, done in concordance with fire prevention week.

There, fire prevention officer Vince Giovannini met them, handed out clipboards and discussed the morning's mission - the Simultaneous Fire Drill.

For it, 24 firefighters needed to fan across Grimsby, monitoring 10 schools complete their school fire escape plans.

"The goal of today is to monitor and assist," Giovannini told his troops. "They are to do everything."

Then it was an "Any questions?" and a "Let's go."

The fire hall was an instant bustle of activity as firefighters grabbed their gear, pumper keys and rolled up the bay doors.

Even the Sparkymobile and the fire buffs truck were called into action.

Giovannini and firefighter Paul Kucharuk hopped into Aerial 1 with a local reporter and were off to Central Public School, downtown.

Kucharuk was volunteering his time on two hours sleep after working a night shift at a steel processing plant in Stoney Creek.

"Without staff's commitment, we couldn't do any of this," said Giovannini.

Ten schools. Six thousand students and staff. One hour.

"The neat part is students take home the fire escape skills they learned at school."

At 10 a.m., the sirens simultaneously went off at all Grimsby schools.

At Central Public School, students excitedly rushed out the main exits for their third fire drill of the season.

The firefighters entered and examined each facility to search for potential fire hazards.

Then just like that, the excitement was over.

Within minutes, all students were accounted for.

For Grimsby's finest, it was another job well done.