Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Chris Bouissey on September 21, 2008 at 5:55pm

Im in an extreme northern ny fire dept. we do alot of demonstrations at schools and preschools. one particular one we do is in a church in Elgin Quebec. we do a simulation of a room search in full ppe and scba. we also use charged hoselines and tools as well. the kids love this and weve also gotten a few membership inquiries this way. Great PR also

Permalink Reply by Chris Bouissey on September 21, 2008 at 5:57pm

Also, Have you tried the grease fire demo? a turkey fryer, a fry pan, and grease, with a touch of water....that really wows the crowd ;)

Permalink Reply by Jenn on October 31, 2008 at 6:32pm

We set up rooms a bedroom, bathroom,dinning room and a kitchen. We actually build walls that seperate the rooms and we make the kids go through each room and pick out all the hazards. We also take kids out into the bays and set up a relay race. We get a couple xxl tee-shirts with our dept name on them, split the class in 2 and have the first person in each line where a shirt then we say go they have to do different things like run to a mat stop, drop and roll on it then run around the cone and then come back and give the shirt to the next person in their line and the first team who gets through their line wins. We have an egg drop thing. We get a few eggs strap one egg in a stirofoam cup. Then take one egg with nothing on it then take the other egg wrapped in the cup then drop them into a bucket. This simulates the benefits of wearing a helmet (the kids like it!) Also we get a the class split up into 2 groups again and have two ff's with their gear infront of them. Have the kids route for the ff on their side and see which one can don their gear fastest.

Permalink Reply by Mitchell Fire Company on November 24, 2008 at 11:35am

At both my career and volunteer departments we also put on a "show gear" demonstration; unfortunately, many firefighters think that putting on gear and a tour of the engine is adequate fire prevention. While it's important for preschool-aged children to see a geared up firefighter and know not to be afraid of him or her, this lesson loses its impact with older children. It isn't enough for us to simply show what the fire department does--as children get older (and I'm particularly thinking of middle school kids) we need to build on that into a more inclusive fire prevention message, so that as young adults fire safety will have become a habit for those students.

Permalink Reply by Jim Brunelle Jr. on November 29, 2008 at 11:25am

I am the Fire prevention cordinator for my company, I am responsible for a pre school, and a grade school with students from 1st grade to 3rd grade, with a couple mentally handicapped classes. We do a classroom by classroom visit covering everything from calling 911,smoke detctors,stop,drop and roll,get out stay out,exit drills,meeting places,matchs and lighters are not toys, as well having a school bus converted into a saftey awareness house with a smoke simultaed bedroom. we also do the friendly firefighter with the air pack demo and show them the trucks and equipment.
It must be working because by 2nd grade they have all the answers when we ask.
I am always looking for new ideas for this age group as well as adult fire prevention ideas.

Permalink Reply by Jeff Huddleston on January 6, 2009 at 8:58am

We all need to consider the difference between Fire prevention and Injury prevention.
While there is a strong need for both, think about what you are teaching, is it things to do in response to a fire or actual things to do to prevent the fire from ever starting.
FIRE PREVENTION SAVES FIREFIGHTERS