SAFETY FIRST

MAT-SU — Sometimes the little things can mean the difference between life and death.

Things like responding to a home smoke detector or getting out of a burning building may seem obvious actions, but not so obvious to small children. Learning what a smoke detector sounds like and what to do when one goes off was part of an interactive presentation Thursday at Machetanz Elementary School as part of Fire Prevention Awareness Month.

“Hi Darth Vader!” was the greeting for Central Mat-Su firefighter Nick Durban, who gave a demonstration of how firefighters breathe from an air tank while battling a fire.

“Are you guys old enough to cook with a microwave?” firefighter Jill Dees asked a squirmy group of kindergarten through second-graders.

A microwave is a good household tool, but “it can also make things too hot,” she said. “It can burn our hands or, if we’re carrying something and we trip, we can spill it on ourselves or on our little brothers or sisters.”

Some families may have fire and evacuation plans in case of an emergency, but for those that don’t, Thursday’s assembly is a good way for kids to bring that information home, said principal Tom Lytle.

“I hope they can learn some basic safety skills that they can apply in their homes,” he said. “In Alaska, sometimes emergency services aren’t as available as if they lived in Anchorage where there’s a fire station on every corner.”

Students learned how to get out of the house if there’s a fire or they hear a smoke detector alarm. They should feel the door, and if it’s not hot, try to exit that way. If the bedroom door’s too warm, however, there’s always the window, Dees said. If the window’s on a second or third floor, children should open it, drop out some toys and hang a blanket from the window.

Firefighters are going to respond, see the toys and blanket, and respond, she said.

“We’re going to put a ladder up to that window and we’re going to come up and get you out,” she said. “That’s why it’s so important that you be waiting right there at the bottom of the window.”

Rachel Best, a 6-year-old first-grader, helped demonstrate what she learned with some props the firefighters brought with them.

“You have to go out the building and go to your mailbox,” Best said about what she learned. “You drop your toys and you drop your blanket.”

Classmate Brison Mead, 6, said he learned another important lesson about fire.

“When you go outside, don’t go back and get your cat or dog or any animal, or snake or anything,” he said. “You can grab them while you’re going out, but you can’t, like, go out and go back in to get them. Don’t go back in until the fire’s out.”

Students also learned a little about what firefighters do every day. After Durban showed all the gear firefighters wear, his colleague Mark Easter raced kindergartner Victoria Propst — and lost.

“I guess she has better technique than I do,” Easter said. “I tried stealing her gloves, but that didn’t work.”