(Milford)– This week is National Fire Prevention Week. Jason Simpson of the Milford Fire Department says the theme this year is centered around kitchen fires…
“The theme for this year that the National Fire Prevention Association put out is cooking safety starts with you. Pay attention to fire prevention. So what they want you to know is pay attention while you’re cooking in the kitchen. They don’t want you to leave the kitchen while cooking. If you’re baking something, stay home and be ready in case something goes wrong. And then make sure that your smoke detectors are tested monthly and they are working properly. It’s always a good idea to have a fire extinguisher close by in a closet if you need it.”
Simpson says they’ll have several events going on throughout the week, including an open house this Wednesday, October 11th from 5:30 until 7:30 pm…
“We’re going to be handing out free hotdogs. We’re going to have a live fire extinguisher prop where the public can practice using a fire extinguisher against a live fire and it teaches where to aim and if you get it right, the fire will go out. In our kitchen we’re going to be doing some demonstrations on the theme, which is cooking safety. We’re also going to cover some fire alarms and we’re going to show you how to test them. We’ll also have on display our lock boxes which are pretty cool. They’re for homes and businesses. They are a tiny box that mounts on the outside of your house and the fire department has a special key that allows them to open that and get access to your house keys in the event you’re having an emergency at your home and you’re not there. And then we’ll also have some of our fire trucks opened up so we can show the public all of our equipment that we use.”
Simpson adds this Thursday, October 12th, firefighters will visit the Okoboji Elementary School…
“And this year we’re going to be talking to around 80 pre-K and T-K students about some basic fire safety rules and we’re going to display our fire gear and put it on for them so that way they’re not so scared in case we have to come to their house for an emergency call because we want them to come with us if we have to take them out of the house. And then we’ll show them some of the features on the truck and then we a bag of information that they can take home and show their parents.”
The Milford Fire Department will also be participating this Friday, October 13th, in the “High Five Friday” event at the Okoboji Middle School. More information on Fire Prevention Week can be found at nfpa.org.
