All-Year School Program For Promoting Fire Safety
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Publication of my article on school fire safety in Fire Engineering (September 1974) got me more deeply involved in the project than I ever expected to be.
In school, my efforts were expanded to include ail the elementary schools and the Middle School in the Glen Cove, N. Y., district. Instead of planning one assembly and distributing 300 Junior Fire Marshal Newsletters, I have to plan and schedule five elementary assemblies (or classroom visits in five buildings) and three Middle School programs.
As a result of the article, I heard from people all over the country who were involved in fire safety education. I attached these letters to a paper expressing my own ideas on the need for and value of a fire safety education program and submitted them to the Board of Education, along with a request for a sabbatical. I was granted a sabbatical for the summer of 1977 to research the project.
California program
The program with which I had been most impressed was the one described to me by Battalion Chief Cliff Chapman, California Division of Forestry/Orange County Fire Department. By the time I got to California, he had been transferred and it took several phone calls to locate him in Norco, Cal., where he is a forest ranger. He agreed to meet me in Orange and I arrived to find that he had invited several others involved with the program to show me what they were doing. Besides Chapman, I met Captain Steve Garret, fire prevention education division; Bruce Turbeville, public information officer; and Jerry Holland of the resources agency of the Department of Conservation, Division of Forestry.
Their program is so well organized and complete it’s hard to beat. They have teacher packs for grades K to 3, a set of films, tape recordings with worksheets for children to use independently and a junior fire fighters program with workbook, badges and even tests. The fire fighters and the teachers work together.
Battalion Chief Jim Stone, who replaced Chapman, was on vacation but I met with him a few weeks later. He put me in touch with several other people in the field, including Inspector Ken Mitchel from Santa Ana, who also has an excellent program. I came home with a lot of materials and a head full of ideas.
Difference in funding
They have an advantage over New York State in that they have a statewide paid department (Division of Forestry) to organize and fund the program. We have no statewide fire department and most of our departments are volunteer. When I was in touch with the National Fire Prevention and Control Administration, I inquired about grants for establishing a similar program. However, the NFPCA will make grants only through a statewide organization. The fact that my school district is ready and willing does not count. We must go through a state fire organization.
So we have to do the best we can with what we’ve got. Last fall, each elementary school received a “fire box” to be kept in the library. Each box contains the Hartford and Disney fire safety film strips, Disney study prints, an assortment of NFPA pamphlets, back issues of the Junior Fire Marshal Newsletter to use in class discussion, and Jenn workforms (coloring sheets) on various topics. I made a tape recording of the school fire alarm for teachers to use to familiarize children with the sound of the alarm and what to do when they hear it. More expensive items— films and NFPA fact charts—are kept in the Media Center and are available upon request. Each teacher was given an inventory of materials that also indicated appropriate grade levels, a calendar of suggested topics to teach through the year and which materials are suitable for each topic.
Fire department participates
I was happy to receive a call last September from Assistant Chief Mike Maher of the Glen Cove Volunteer Fire Department. He said they had a public relations committee now and would like to meet with me to plan activities for Fire Prevention Week. We met one Saturday afternoon. I brought along my things from California and we talked about ways to adapt their ideas to our own situation. Because the first weeks of school are hectic, I suggested postponing any contests until later. We agreed that during October the firemen would visit the elementary schools, I would get out other information through the year, and then in the spring we’d announced a poster contest to wind up the year.
The committee included Chief Howard Tripp, Assistant Chief Maher, exChief Ed Campbell, Captain John Lynch, Firemen Bill Niece, Bob Sujeski and Bob Nelson and Rescue 1st Lieutenant Joe Kosik. The chairman of the committee was Captain Bill Gray and the co-chairman was 2nd Lieutenant Joe LaRocca.
Being volunteers, all these men had full-time jobs in addition to their duty as fire fighters. However, they took time off to take a fire apparatus to each of the five elementary schools, where they spent an entire day meeting with each class. They demonstrated the equipment, explained the radio dispatch system, talked about good behavior in school fire drills and about EDITH. The Junior Fire Marshal Newsletters, donated by Charles Eisler of the Corbin Wheeler Agency, were distributed in the classrooms. When it started to rain, the program moved indoors.
Holiday safety tips
Just before the Christmas holidays, the children received a list of holiday home safety tips, on the back of which were directions for making an emergency fire fighting pail from a coffee can, thanks to Inspector Mitchel. Eisler also donated the Junior Fire Marshal calendars, one for each classroom.
Any plans for January and February were knocked into a cocked hat by the severe weather. We had blizzards, ice storms, floods, and no electricity for days. But we survived and then sent each teacher a flyer, “Welcome EDITH to Your Class,” which gave suggestions for teaching and materials to use. In April, three assemblies dealing with home fire hazards were presented by Inspector Andy Steinmuller of the Nassau County Fire Marshal’s Office, and the fire department’s poster contest was announced.
The poster contest was a huge success with 578 posters submitted. In one school, 50 percent of the children entered the contest. No one theme was called for, so the posters covered a wide variety of topics—smoke chokes… drop and roll… don’t play with matches … EDITH . . . forest fires . . . get out and call the fire department. The judges had a hard time picking the winners. There were district winners and also winners for each school and each grade level, K through 8. Some children won more than one trophy.
Open house held
Sunday, June 11, was fire department open house in Glen Cove. Demonstrations included a roof rescue with an aerial ladder, rappelling from the tower roof, automobile rescue and extinguishing a car fire. The Glen Head Fire Department demonstrated its Hurst Tool and now the Glen Cove Kiwanis Club is raising funds to buy one for the Glen Cove Fire Department.
The junior firemen put on a short demonstration of timed activities. There was a touch of reality when a woman was hit by a car near the firehouse and the brand new rescue truck rolled to her assistance.
After the demonstrations, the contest winners were called up one by one to get their tropies. I was so proud of the work they’d done. Some are children to whom academic success comes hard, if at all. How great they felt to get a trophy! Their posters had been displayed on the walls fo the firehouse for all to see. The day ended with refreshments and fire helmets for everybody.
Our program for the current school year has already started. The posters—all 578 of them—are being saved and will be displayed in store windows during this school year. Even those who didn’t win a trophy will be delighted to see their work exhibited in public. We had a planning meeting early this month and look forward to more and better activities. Maybe we’ll be able to get more of the business community involved in financial support of the program.
Financial setback
There are many excellent materials becoming available, but our school has just been dealt a severe blow in a recent court decision affecting “small city school districts” in New York State. The legislature had allowed these districts to place insurance, pensions, etc., in the capital budget, thus avoiding the tax limitation imposed under the State Constitution. The court ruled that these items must be in the operating budget, which is limited by the tax ceiling. Our school district is faced with cutting $2 million to make up the difference. So there can be no further expenditures for our fledgling program this year. We’ll have to use the material the district previously purchased and try to find ways to vary the presentations to avoid boredom.
Actually, I guess we should take heart from this situation. It proves that with very limited expenditure of cash, but with a lot of dedication and volunteer efforts, anybody can have a fire safety education program. Even if it’s not as elaborate or well organized as California’s, our children have gotten the message and are spreading the word to others in the community. And that’s what it’s all about—getting everybody to be aware that
Extinguishing fires is the fire department’s job,
Preventing fires is EVERYBODY’S job.
