Fire Fighter Comes to visit

23 February 2009
Karen Muir from the Fire Department came today to talk to the children about Fire Safety. She looked at our display about the fires in Australia and chatted to the children about what she could see in the pictures.
She began her discussion talking about what are tools and what are toys. She questioned the children about whether matches and lighters were tools or toys. She showed us pictures of real fires and how people had seen smoke, shut their bedroom doors, climbed out of the window and gone to a safe spot whether it be their letterbox, cattle stop, or gateway. She explained to the children how our noses go to sleep at night but our ears are awake. We must call out Fire, fire and we sang our fire song. “Get out, stay out, well done.”
She talked about the metre heater rule, which means
everything should be a metre away from the fire or heater that includes you.
She talked about how lots of wires cause lots of fires and gave examples of how too many wires plugged into one hole causes lots of fires. She explained how it was
important to test your smoke alarm once a month by pushing the button down. She demonstrated how the smoke alarm was a tool and the beeping lets us know when there was smoke in the house. It has to be up high because that is where the smoke goes in a fire. Karen showed the children how a thermal hanging on a clothesline 12 metres from a house on fire had melted and explained how polar fleece would melt too. It had plastic in the material. The metre heater rule applies to pets who like to sleep close to the heater or fire in winter too. Their fur starts to burn like the thermal. She gave examples of how nests in
tractors can also set fire to the tractor and showed then a kettle that had been burnt. It had melted and stuck to an element. She showed them also melted remote.
Most important adults when going to bed should check that everything is off. Last of all she read us a story about what to do in a fire and showed the special uniform fire fighters wear.
One girl helped Karen by trying it on. Every child received a fire safety book and a sticker for being great listeners, asking great questions and also sharing what they new. What a great talk which tied in great with our big interest in the Australian fires. Jo.