Fire Safety School Programs by Program

Reading Buddies

We visit our First Grade Children twice a year both in the Fall and Spring. Our Fall program is currently being re-worked.

For our Spring Program, we bring our “Hazard House” to the school. This “Hazard House” is really a pull behind E.D.I.T.H. trailer that has two classrooms where we teach exit drills to our students. We introduce/review the concepts of a fire escape plan and then practice them right there. After activating smoke detectors, we have the children crawl low under stage smoke that is piped throughout the trailer. They exit to a meeting place and then go to a “neighbor’s house” to “call 911”. It is an excellent hands-on learning experience for our children.

Our second visit to the Kindergarten children, like the Pre-K, involves us simply going to their room and reading fire safety stories to them in our uniforms.

“Down at the Meeting Place”

On June 16, 2005, the Kirk Road Elementary School performed the fire safety musical “Down at the Meeting Place”, written by Kevin Magin. Under the direction of Linda Marino, the 5th grade chorus sang and acted out four scenes which taught the audience how to perform a fire drill at home.

The musical opened with a scene of a “city on fire” with a crowd of onlookers ‘oohing’ and ‘aahing’ at the flames. A team of seven firefighters all dressed in red fire helmets, badges, and NGFD T-Shirts (Thank You Chief Grace!) responded with a red wagon complete with a ¾” nozzle and hose to douse the “fire” and make the rescue.

Scene II continued back at the station where the firefighters cleaned equipment and asked the Captain for permission to educate the public about how to perform home fire drills.

The third scene took place in a classroom where the firefighters finished teaching the public and a review brought out all the important steps to an E.D.I.T.H Drill.

The last scene took place in a home where a fire occurred. A smoke detector awakened the family and they all escaped to a meeting place, the mailbox. Once again, the firefighters responded to extinguish the flames. The musical closed with everyone singing the theme, “Down at the Meeting Place”.

A huge thank you to Mrs. Marino and Ms. Maureen Outlaw (art teacher/artwork) for their help with this new project.

Tools & Toys

Tools & Toys – Using a duffel bag full of both tools and toys, we have the children identify and separate the kinds of items into two piles and then discuss the dangers associated with each tool and why children should never touch tools and always get a grown-up to pick up their tools and put them away. Included in these tools are also matches and lighters. To close out this lesson, we have select children role play a scenario where they “find” matches or lighters and then get a grown-up (usually a teacher in the room) to come pick up that item.