Seeing a firefighter with an air tank and mask can be a scary image for young children.
To dispel that fear, the International Falls Fire Department is holding fire safety sessions for students in grades Kindergarten through second grade on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.
Students from International Falls Public Schools and Indus School are scheduled to attend the half-hour sessions throughout the two days.
Children ages zero to five attended the fire safety class Monday night on a field trip with their Early Childhood Family Education “play and learn” class in International Falls. Those children attended with their parents, and showing the firefighter gear was minimized in case they were too young to understand or become too scared.
However, exposure to firefighter gear is important in helping the grade-school children escape a house fire, said Rick Houglum, International Falls Fire Department firefighter engineer, who is coordinating the sessions for fire safety week.
Houglum said that the lower grade-school children are the most scared in situations where firefighters with their gear come to their house, so exposing them to it in a safe environment helps them prepare for emergencies.
“They can hear what (firefighters) sound like because their voices are more muffled when they talk through the air mask,” Houglum said. “If we do have a fire, we don’t want them to be hiding under their bed or in the closet because they’re scared — we want them to get out.”
The sessions will include a mock bedroom scene with a bed and window. Children will practice going to the door and feeling with the back of their hand if it’s hot. If so, they will learn not to open the door, and instead open the window and escape.
“We want to make sure they know how to get out of a house,” Houglum said. “We’ll talk about having a meeting place that the whole family knows (in case of a fire), whether it’s the end of the driveway, at the corner, or at a tree.”
For the grade-school children, who will attend the fire safety sessions without their parents, Houglum hopes students will take the information home to their families. Children will be sent out with supplies to encourage them to talk to their parents about checking smoke alarms and other fire safety tips.
“It gets the kids involved so they can get their parents involved,” Houglum said.
Local fire safety efforts such as the children’s training events have proven to be effective, Houglum added.
“Fire prevention really has come a long ways,” he said, adding that when he joined the fire department 25 years ago, the Falls had an average of 100 fires each year.
“Now we’re down to right around 50,” he said. “So it’s cut the fires in half.”
