Photo courtesy of the Blacksburg Fire Department

Sparky, the Blacksburg Fire Department's "talking" Dalmatian, captures the attention of children during an open house in 2006.

Photo courtesy of the Dublin Fire Department

Addie Crigger gives the Dublin Fire Department's Patches, a robotic Dalmatian, a kiss during the department's open house.

Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

Mel is the temporary name for the robot that the Pulaski Volunteer Fire Department uses to teach children fire safety. The town's two elementary schools, Critzer and Pulaski, have until May 15 to submit potential names for the robot. So far, Fire Marshal Chip Hutchinson says, some of the names suggested are Frank, Spike, Hot Tamale and Ricky Rescue.

But the Dalmatian and firefighter robots and remote-controlled, water-shooting fire trucks owned by several New River Valley fire departments aren't toys. They have an important purpose: to teach fire safety.

They cost as much as $10,000 each.

"I'm worth every penny of it," said the Pulaski Fire Department's $8,700 robotic firefighter, Mel, with the help of Fire Marshal Chip Hutchinson.

The Pulaski department is the latest to acquire one of the high-tech devices, which allow firefighters to talk through the characters using wireless headsets.

If Mel is able to teach one child how to get out of a burning house safely or how to prevent a fire, he's worth the cost, Hutchinson said.

Many other firefighters agree.

The Dublin and Christiansburg fire departments have a robotic but fuzzy and sweet-faced Dalmatian, Patches, that rides in a fire truck complete with lights and sirens. The Blacksburg Fire Department has a similar Dalmatian-and-firetruck combination; that Dalmatian is called Sparky.

The Radford Fire Department doesn't have a robot yet, but wants one.

"It's a good training aid for our youth," said Radford Assistant Fire Chief Rodney Haywood. "It just grabs their attention a whole lot more" than a person can.

Ten years ago, Haywood said, all it took was a coloring book and some crayons to hold youngsters' attention long enough to teach them to stop, drop and roll if their clothes catch fire, have an escape plan in case of a fire and not to play with matches. But that's not enough anymore, he said.

The Radford Fire Department has applied for a grant to get its own Patches.

Robotronics, the Utah manufacturer that made Sparky, Patches and Pumper the firetruck, touts them as "an exciting tool for teaching fire safety."

Patches moves, winks and blinks by remote control, and a two-way wireless transmitter allows a user to speak through him, his mouth automatically opening and closing with the words.

"It's such a great way to promote fire safety," said Paul Schwen, director of marketing and sales for Robotronics, which also makes robotics characters that teach about recycling, crime prevention and other things. "It allows you to approach a child on their level," something that may not be easy for a firefighter.

"They tend to be big, tough guys," Schwen said, "and they're not trained to be educators, especially for little kids."

But, given a character to speak through, that all changes.

"Because the visit with the robot is so memorable, children are more likely to remember the message," Schwen said.

"The kids absolutely love it," said Dublin Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Saunders, who said the department has had Patches and Pumper for about four years. "Normally when he's there and we're talking through him, they don't even know if anybody else is around. They're just so intrigued by him."

Saunders said the fire department gets the most use out of Patches during Fire Prevention Week in October. That week, firefighters take Patches and Pumper to each classroom at Dublin Elementary School and he takes part in the fire safety parade.

"When we're doing a fire prevention program, we do it through Patches," Saunders said.

Blacksburg has had Sparky for nearly a decade, Wayne Garst, a fire code official, said.

"When we first got him, people had never seen anything like that before," he said.

Now, the robotic Dalmatians are part of so many New River Valley fire departments that the Pulaski department decided to go with something different when it looked into purchasing a robotic character earlier this year.

With his shaggy blond hair, bushy eyebrows and mustache and big, green, felt eyes, Mel looks like he could be one of Jim Henson's Muppets.

The robotic firefighter joined the Pulaski department in late March from manufacturer Probotics America in Texas.

Mel is only a temporary name, though. The town's two elementary schools, Critzer and Pulaski, have until May 15 to submit potential names.

So far, Hutchinson said, some of the names suggested are Frank, Spike, Hot Tamale and Ricky Rescue.

The class with the winning submission gets a pizza party with Mel. Hutchinson can't wait to show him off.

"They're going to love him," he said.

The Christiansburg department uses Patches in conjunction with its Kid's Safety House, a trailer set up to teach children how to escape a house fire and the importance of having working smoke detectors. It also simulates hurricanes and tornadoes.

"It seems to have a big impact," said Christiansburg firefighter Clark Mitchell.

Garst said he remembers that just before the department shelled out about $7,500 for Sparky, some eyebrows were raised at the price tag.

"Then we got him," Garst said. "Everybody that saw him said, 'Man, that's the best money we've ever spent.' "

The Blacksburg department used its own funds to pay for Sparky and his firetruck. Dublin, Pulaski and Christiansburg all bought their robotic characters with leftover funds from a Homeland Security grant they received to purchase airpacks for firefighters.

Each department had grant money left over after buying the airpacks. They said they were told by the grant's administrator that they had only two options for the extra funds: give it back or spend it on fire prevention education.

Of course, they chose the latter.

The administrator, the U.S. Fire Administration, is an entity of the Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency.

One of the administration's goals is to reduce fire deaths. The fire death rate in the U.S. is one of the highest per capita in the industrialized world, according to its Web site. Fire kills 3,700 people and injures more than 20,000 people each year, it says.

"Fire safety is a big deal," Garst said. "You're talking about life safety."