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Fire Prevention Week was a smoking hot success at all 11 District Elementary schools, as students learned and reviewed the important rules of fire safety. An annual tradition, Fire Prevention Week helps unite schools with their community. Schools host local fire companies and rescue services, who then work to educate students about the dangers of fire, and emergency safety skills. In many cases, the volunteers are visitors to the same Elementary Schools they attended as a child.
At Anna Devine Elementary School, over 25 volunteers from the St. Remy, Rifton, and Tillson Fire Departments visited classrooms, where the firemen and firewomen presented a short, fact-filled lesson and answered students’ questions about what it is like to fight fires. The students also reviewed a recent social studies lesson, proudly sharing with their visitors that Benjamin Franklin founded the original volunteer fire department, the Union Fire Company in Philadelphia in 1736.
At Edward R. Crosby Elementary School, Ulster Hose #5 conducted a building-wide fire safety drill and students attended a school assembly to watch a safety video. At both schools, firefighters wore regulation fire uniforms so that children could get a chance to see what they look like “in gear” and not be scared.
At Meagher and John F. Kennedy Elementary Schools, the Kingston City Fire Department, under the direction of Lieutenant Michael Glotzl, brought lessons to life with the help of the Smoke House. Inside the Smoke House, firefighter Heidi Maguire practiced Stop, Drop, and Roll, with students and shared common pitfalls (such as leaving a candle burning at night) that can cause accidental fires. The Smoke House is a mobile classroom featuring child-size rooms, where students engage in hands-on learning when virtual smoke fills the room and they must crawl beneath the haze to a safe exit. By creating an environment where children can calmly learn how to handle a real-fire situation, firefighters provide students with essential tools for survival, should they ever encounter an actual blaze.
Ulster Hose # 5 also visited Chambers Elementary School, where Lieutenant Chris Hyatt, Chief Ed Molinaro, and members of the Ulster Hose #5 Fire Company conducted a Fire Prevention Assembly where they showed a videotape and spoke to the students about fire safety, smoke detectors, calling 911 for an emergency, and how to Stop, Drop, and Roll. A question-and-answer period followed. "The information was great and it was presented in a manner the children could really relate to," offers Principal Anna Brett. "This assembly helps teach the children important fire safety lessons, and it shows them that firefighters are their friends."
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