Rushcreek Fire & EMS volunteer Mike Overturf has been providing fire safety education to Benjamin Logan Elementary students for 28 years. Duane VanBuskirk, Danny Foulk, Jeremy Brisson, and Shannon Stineman also volunteered to help cover the fire safety topics this week for National Fire Prevention Week.
Teaching students how to get out of burning houses safely and quickly while helping them to know not to ever go back into a house or building to retrieve anything is one of the main objectives.
During fire safety week, the pre-school, kindergarten and first-grade students had the chance to interact and become comfortable with firefighters in full gear to alleviate any fears and to help prevent them from hiding during an emergency.
The firefighters let the students know they are here to help keep them safe. Some of the fire safety topics covered during the visit included:
• Not to breathe smoke, smoke is dangerous.
• Crawl low and stay under the smoke and go to your meeting place.
• Demonstrated what a smoke alarm sounds like.
• When smoke alarm sounds, Get Out and Stay Out.
• Check the door with the back of your hand, don’t touch if hot.
• Go to a window and if you can, get out of the window safely.
• Have a meeting area outside of your house that everyone in the house knows about away from the house.
• If you cannot get out of your window safely, stay low on the floor right by your window, don’t hide.
• Never go back into house for any reason.
The firefighters encouraged the students to identify good things and bad things with regard to things in the home that may be dangerous such as candles.
The presenters also showed the students a smoke detector and Mr. Overturf gave the students a homework assignment to go home and talk with mom and dad to make sure that every floor of the house has a smoke detector. Once they find the detectors, they need to find the little button on the bottom or the side to test it to make sure that they work. Then, once they’ve found them and checked them he advised to change the batteries twice a year once in the fall and once in the spring.