First responders spent some time at Straub Elementary School Thursday morning, not because of any disaster but instead to teach second graders the dos and don’ts of fire safety.
According to Capt. Mark Mains of the Maysville Fire Department, as part of Fire Prevention Week, firefighters visit the elementary school each year to educate children to better be prepared should a fire occur in their homes.
“We come up here with the second graders and we give them a fire safety talk in there, we tell them what to do if they have a fire, how to get out, what to check, where to go when they get outside and if they have a plan for that,” Mains said.
Members of the fire department take turns teaching kids useful skills in a house fire scenario, such as feeling the doorknob to determine whether a fire is behind the door, as well as keeping low to the ground to avoid the rising smoke a fire produces. The firefighters also brought a ‘smoke trailer’ in which kids could crawl through a small trailer filled with fog to imitate smoke from a fire.
One of the other things the fire department is trying to teach children with the visit was to not be afraid and hide whenever firefighters and other first responders arrive to the scene. The firefighters showed students what to expect when they arrive and what equipment the responders will wear.
“A kid will want to hide from us when we have all our gear on, our masks. We want to teach them not to be afraid of us, so they don’t hide under beds or in closets, that way we can find them and we teach them to call out to us if we call for them.”
Evidence of the children’s fearlessness when it comes to firefighters and the work they do, can clearly been seen in the way they were engaged and interacted with all of lessons given to them.
“They enjoy it and they look forward to it every year,” said second grade teacher Sherry Christiansen. “It’s a great learning experience for them and most of them have a general idea, but some of them don’t realize how important it is to get out pretty quick and all of the little details of it with the door handle. The experience of getting to enter and exit the smoke house is a good experience for them.”
