VWPD teaches students about fire safety

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Fire Prevention Week in the Van Wert schools is a busy time for the Fire Department. Planning for this starts months before the usual and customary October kick-off.

All of the county fire departments work with a fundraising group called Creative Safety in the spring.  Creative Safety raises funds locally within the county to be used by Crestview, Lincolnview, and Van Wert school districts for the Firefighter Phil Program.

This program usually is done a week or two prior to Fire Prevention Week and teaches children about fire prevention and fire safety. It also encourages positive behavior like honesty, civic responsibility, and knowing what to do in case of an emergency. There is a live presentation from “Magic Tom”, who uses magic, games, and ventriloquism to engage children in the fire safety lessons. This program also funds a grade-specific activity book and other interactive materials for children to take home to work on with their parents or guardians.

During Fire Prevention Week, the Van Wert Fire Department rolls out its Fire Prevention Trailer, a 36-foot long mobile classroom used to instruct district third-graders. The current trailer was purchased in 2007 and has been in continuous use in a variety of districts each year.

The trailer has bleacher seating for 24 students and numerous interactive features. There is a variety of props instructors use to teach specific actions, such as feeling a heated door, hazards common to stoves and fireplaces, and the dangers of extension cords, especially those under rugs or carpet. Instructors discuss and demonstrate how to call 9-1-1, the importance of pre-fire planning, and having an escape route and the use of a fire alarm pull station.

The back half of the trailer simulates a child’s bedroom and is ultimately filled with safe smoke simulating what it is like in actual fire conditions, which is a highlight of the training. Children are taught different escape routes, and then must use the route as part of the training drill.

The city fire department will also conduct a coloring contest in grades K-3 in April. Winners of the contest are selected from each grade, and, from these class winners, a building winner is chosen from St. Mary’s, Van Wert Elementary School, and the Van Wert Early Childhood Center. In May, the students who are the building winners are driven to school in a fire truck.