The Boardman Fire Department kept itself busy during Fire Prevention Week by visiting classrooms and providing fire safety tips to the students.
Among the lessons the students were taught is the vital role smoke detectors play in keeping families safe from fire. Another lesson was how to evade the effects of smoke when trying to escape a smoke-filled room by getting and remaining low to exit the room on all fours.
Visits from police or fire departments are something to which kids look forward. Often, the individual departments use brochure printing as a way to remind students of what they were taught.
When visiting a Boardman school campus, the department brings along what is basically a small house on wheels. This ‘house’ is the department’s mobile fire safety unit, which is where hands-on training and walkthroughs with students take place.
In addition to the basic safety tips the children received, there was information aimed at parents as well. According to Lt. James Yocum, one of the best ways parents can help their youngsters survive a fire is to keep bedroom doors closed when children go to bed. An open bedroom door makes it easier for fire, heat and smoke to find their way into a bedroom.
According to fire experts, families should set a goal of taking two minutes or less to evacuate their house in case of fire.
