Smoke detectors, fire extinguishers and having a fire safety plan.
The Quesnel Fire Department has completed another round of education for students using their fire safety house.
Fire Chief Ron Richert says they have been doing it for years.
“In 1992, over 30 years ago, there was a fire safety house built by members of the Quesnel Fire Department and it has been operating ever since, and every May-June of the calendar year we actually travel to all the schools in the District, we even go out to Wells and Nazko.”
Richert says the children are a very keen audience.
“They are very interested. We’ll take on a class of, we usually take on about a dozen children at a time so sometimes we run multiple sessions through one school. Grade 3, that was designated by NFPA (the National Fire Protection Association) years ago, that grade 3 is at that age where they start to develop those skills and they’re actually able to remember. It’s amazing how many people come back years later and say I remember doing the fire safety house, so it’s very positive and well educated program that we do with the Quesnel School District.”
He says the students will then go home and talk to their parents about it.
“Most people now, years ago a lot of people didn’t have smoke detectors in their homes. We are finding a lot more people having smoke detectors but not having a fire safety plan, so this program teaches them and they take that home with them and they usually get the parents or the guardian of the home to develop a fire safety plan.”
Richert says they even use some special effects when teaching.
“We have theater smoke, it’s non toxic smoke, and we actually use that a little bit in the hallway and they have to actually exit out a window in the fire safety house.”
Richert says they typically educate around 300 children a year, although they are down a bit this year to around 245.
