The Haines Volunteer Fire Department is currently hosting fire prevention week, and is teaching kids to increase fire safety in their home.
It’s 9 am at the firehall and Mrs Armstrong‘s class of first graders is standing by the fire trucks, listening to Chuck Mitman, a lifetime member of the department, teaching them about fire safety.
” You should already be prepared, because what if the fire is right outside your door? You are going to want to come out the window!” -Cheering-
This year marks the hundredth year the department is organizing the event.
We go upstairs and huddle in a room, smoke seeps in from under the door. It comes from a smoke machine, this is training. The alarm rings.
“But you don’t have to worry, because you already have a plan, you have a meeting place, we know what we are going to do”
The kids get on the ground and feel their way out. They all make it safely to the exit.
Scenarios like this one are set up for a wide age range, from preschool to eighth grade.
As Al Giddings, staff at the department, describes:
” And all the kids from the school are going to come through, we have the ‘learn not to burn’ room, we have a demonstration upstairs about being around the kitchen and hot cooking utensils, we do fire engine rides, the older kids are going to experience putting out a real class B fire with an extinguisher”
Simple practice such as this is fun, and prepares the children to act appropriately in case of a real emergency. If you feel moved to join the Haines Volunteer Fire Department,
“Just come on down, if you have two arms and two legs you are in”
