Fire Prevention Day at BES
Students learned about fire safety, explored fire trucks and other firefighting equipment, and met some real life community heroes during Berlin Elementary School’s Fire Prevention Program October 7. All four fire departments in the Berlin Central School District were at the school to talk about fire prevention and share the many ways firefighters and EMTs help keep our communities safe.
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“We don’t like to put out fires, we like to prevent them,” said Ivan Wager, Rensselaer County’s Fire Coordinator, who in full dress uniform, addressed the children during assemblies for students in grades K-5. “This week is fire prevention week, but fire prevention is important every week, every day,” he said.
Wager talked about the importance of everyone having working smoke alarms in the home and showed students how these lifesaving alarms work and sound. During the assembly, the firefighters cautioned the children not to play with matches, lighters and candles. Several volunteers donned the gear they wear when responding to a house fire; complete with boots, heavy pants and coats, helmets, and air packs that covered their faces and changed the way they sounded. They wandered through the crowd giving out high fives, letting the students see them up close and understand there was nothing to fear from all that gear – the person inside was there to help!
Of course, no fire prevention assembly would be complete without big trucks, hoses, and other cool equipment firefighters use to keep us safe. Outside the school students got to explore two engine tankers (one each from the Berlin and Stephentown fire departments), a fast attack pumper from the Petersburgh Fire Department, an ambulance from the Berlin Rescue Squad, even an eight-wheeled, amphibious all-terrain vehicle the Grafton Fire Department uses to fight forest fires and rescue people from remote areas. At each vehicle were volunteer firefighters or EMTs who showed the students around the apparatus and explained the different equipment found on the trucks. For example, students took turns looking through a thermal imaging camera with Petersburgh Fire Chief William Seel, who explained to them how the device allows firefighters to see hot spots in walls or locate missing people by the heat they put off.
The event also included a school wide fire drill which the firefighters observed. BES Pre-K students received their own special fire prevention presentation in the form of a classroom visit from the firefighters.
Special thanks to Mr. Wager and the volunteers of the Berlin Fire Department, Grafton Fire Department, Petersburgh Fire Department, and Stephentown Fire Department for organizing this important event and making it both fun and informative![/private]