Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Hurt Park Elementary students learn fire safety
Schools are using Fire Prevention Week as an educational tool for youngsters.
STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS The Roanoke Times
Christopher Hess, 7, crawls out of a simulated burning upstairs bedroom Monday on a truck equipped to help teach children what to do in the case of a fire or emergency. He and Stephen Ingo, 7, climbed through the sliding glass door.
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Aden Mukumbira was lying in bed when the smoke alarm went off and the makeshift bedroom became clouded with gray fog.
The 8-year-old pinched his nose with his fingers and squinted his eyes.
"Do we want to stand up and run to the door?" asked Jason Crouch, a Roanoke firefighter.
"Yes!" Aden and his classmates replied, turning for the door.
"No. We want to crawl," Crouch said, teaching them to stay low to avoid the smoke.
Aden and several of his classmates at Hurt Park Elementary School were inside the fire department's fire safety house, a trailer set up with a scaled-down living room, kitchen and bedroom.
The demonstration outside the school Monday kicked off national Fire Prevention Week and is just one of many fire safety events happening at schools this month.
Roanoke Fire Chief David Hoback said the department credits fire prevention and education for the drop in residential and commercial fires over the past 10 years, from more than 200 fires a year in the early 1990s to 77 in 2008.
"We'd much rather interact with kids like this than at their houses," he said.
There were more than 29,000 fires in Virginia last year. Most were preventable and were sparked by cooking or smoking.
Inside the fire safety house, firefighters asked the students to look for fire hazards. They quickly pointed to magazines, books and a rug that were too close to the fireplace, and to towels and a potholder that were too close to the stove.
Upstairs in the bedroom, Crouch filled the room with fog and taught the students how to feel the door with the back of their hand.
The fire department also brought two fire trucks to the school and let the students go through them, and unveiled a robotic fire truck with a driver that talks and moves by remote control. That teaching tool was purchased with grant money from Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. and Rutherfoord, an area risk-management and insurance company.
A similar education effort is under way in Roanoke County, where the fire department's chaplain, public information officer and firefighters will visit schools, day cares, churches and businesses.
On Friday, the county department was at the Fort Lewis Baptist Church preschool with its robotic truck. Chaplain Brian Clingenpeel talked to the preschoolers about smoke detectors and had one boy demonstrate how to stop, drop and roll.
He also put on his firefighting gear in front of the children and invited them to touch it. Many children are afraid of firefighters because of their protective clothing and hide from them, Clingenpeel said. "We're just trying to help them understand that firefighters are there to help," he said.
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