It's never too early to learn fire safety

The Pine Haven Fire Department hosted a fire safety training class featuring kitchen safety for 25 home-school children and their parents Friday afternoon. Teachers included Chief Don Lancaster, deputy chief David Hull, engineer Ed Scott and safety officer TJ Gideon.

The event was planned at the time of the September 26 county rural fire training on Pine Ridge Road and surrounding area between the fire chief and the participating East family, who requested to have a tour of the fire department for their and their neighbors’ home-schooled kids. Lancaster set up the event with Scott as liaison between the department and families.

The chief conducted this class under the National Fire Protection theme, “Serve up fire safety in the kitchen”. The youngsters aged from a couple of years old to nine or ten. Lancaster advocated the younger ones joining the class: “I think the earlier you expose children to fire safety, the better off you are.”

The kids were given workbooks filled with different types of exercises including safety in the kitchen, fire routes from their homes and what to do in an emergency situation. The firefighters talked through the pamphlet before giving the children a tour of the garage with discussion and “dry” demonstrations of what various pieces of equipment contribute to putting out fires.

Gideon and Hull put on their two types of gear. The full regalia is the “bunker” or full gear to fight structural fires and the other is the grassland fire gear for fighting open area fires.

The children were not the only ones interested – there were many insightful questions from the adult audience, too.

The themes promoted by the Pine Haven Fire Department are provided by the National Fire Protection Association. Chief Lancaster considered this event a success, saying, “The parents really appreciated it and the kids were pretty excited about it and want to do more.”