Big Lake youngsters learn fire safety

BIG LAKE -- Assistant Big Lake Fire Chief Kym Savage enjoys teaching kids about fire safety so much that she has been doing it for the past 13 years.

"Fire prevention programs for children work," she said Thursday. "They learn from them and they use what they've been taught."

October is Fire Safety Month, and the week of October 6-12 is Fire Prevention Week. Savage and her colleagues at the Big Lake Fire Station used the opportunity to provide an exciting program for children at Big Lake Elementary school. Savage believes that kindergartners and first-graders are eager to learn, and that they carry what they learn through their lives.

"Teach a kindergartner to use a seat belt, and you've got a seat belt user for life," said Savage, who holds a degree in child development.

Savage and the Big Lake firefighters and medics provided the Big Lake kindergartners and first-graders a variety of experiences that were both fun and educational, she said.

"We had the kindergarten group in the station on Tuesday, and the first-graders on Thursday," Savage said.

Her fellow firefighters helped conduct a short training session for the children in the station's classroom. Topics included what to do in case of fire, family safety plans, why working smoke detectors are important, and how to call 911 and what kind of information, such as their home address, to give the dispatcher.

The class included a demonstration of fire clothing and equipment a firefighter uses to explain all the parts of the outfit and how the equipment and special fabrics worked to protect the firefighter. The children also

received a demonstration of the latest firefighting technology, including the station's new thermal imaging camera.

"We keep the class short," said Savage, "and we make it fun. We talk to them about emergencies and how to react to a crisis without scaring them."

According to Savage, the children's favorite part of the class came at the very end, when firefighters in full gear, including oxygen tanks, crawled around the floor and underneath the tables on their stomachs to demonstrate how to stay beneath smoke in a real fire situation.

"The kids laugh and try to get the firefighters to crawl to where they are sitting. The firefighter then will give the kid a high five. After that the firefighters stand up and begin removing the gear and suits so that the children can see that they are normal people inside all that scary-looking stuff."

"This helps them to keep from being afraid when they see firefighters in their gear and tanks," explained Savage.

She tries to make sure that one of the firefighters in every class is a woman.

"They are always surprised when the suit comes off and they see a woman under all that gear," laughs Savage. "I think it's important for the little girls to see that they can grow up to be firefighters, too. The little boys tell them 'You can't grow up to be a fireman because you're a girl!'"

After the classroom portion of the visit, the children were divided up into smaller groups for separate activities. One group got to get into a fire truck and operate the siren, after which they trooped off to a wooded area to use a forestry hose to spray a pretend fire. A second group was allowed to climb into an ambulance and see all the emergency medical gear inside of it. The third group remained in the classroom to see a film on the importance of family escape plans. The groups were rotated so that each child got to participate in every activity.

At the end of the visit, each child received a bright red plastic firefighter's hat and they posed with Smokey the Bear, courtesy of the Alaska Division of Forestry.

Savage said older children are not left out of Big Lake's fire safety education program.

"On Friday Fire Chief Bill Gamble will go to the school accompanied by firefighters and medics dressed up in all their gear," she said.

"All the children in the school are together, and he provides the same information that I do. Of course, the kindergartners and first-graders know it all by that time and so they can answer all the questions!"

The school program also features demonstrations of emergency medical procedures by medics, using volunteers from the audience who are treated with bandages, splints and the spinal immobilization system.

Savage believes the most important part of the program is that children learn not to be afraid of the firefighters, the medics and the ambulances.

"They become our friends because they know that we are here to help."