(Spirit Lake)– This week marks the annual observance of Fire Prevention Week. Spirit Lake Fire Chief Pat Daly tells KUOO news this year’s theme is “fire won’t wait, plan your escape”…
“What’s really neat about this is, you know, we’ve been teaching kids to have a meeting place and when we do come up on these fires with structures, we end up actually seeing the people and the kids standing in their meeting place. So the kids are actually taking things home to their parents, so it is working.”
Daly says having a plan in place in the event of a fire or some other disaster can be the difference between life and death…
“We get real nervous when we get to some place and the fire’s rolling out the roof and we’re missing somebody. Then we have to go full blast and we’ve got to try to find them. So if we can get everybody educated to listen to their smoke detectors, get out, get a meeting place, don’t go back in after pets, just things like that.”
Daly says the week will provide an opportunity for young kids to tour the Spirit Lake Fire Station and learn about fire prevention and safety…
“On Tuesday we’re going to have preschool through the second grade, they get bused in. We usually break them in half, half go out to see the trucks, while the other half get a little message in the meeting room and then we switch around. And then on Wednesday we have 3rd and 4th graders and what we usually do for the older ones is we usually get the bouncy house from Arnolds Park and we set that up in one of the stalls in the garage and then we actually do a little obstacle course in the back where the kids have to actually go out in the dark and make their way to the other door, so it’s kind of practicing learn your escape.”
Daly says last year Spirit Lake firefighters made contact with 661 children during Fire Prevention Week.
