Fire safety focus of lessons

Murdock Elementary School students met Willows firefighters this week for lessons in fire safety.

The youngsters in the first through third grades learned about fire escape plans, what to do if a fire starts in their homes and about the equipment firefighters use for various operations.

On Wednesday, the upper grade students attended an assembly in the cafeteria where Engineer Tyler Lombard and other firefighters showed videos on how to get out of a burning home.

Before a fire starts, they advised families to create an escape plan by identifying all the doors and windows in their residences so exits are known. Once outside, the family should go to a designated meeting place like a tree or gate, so everybody can be found a safe distance from the house.

A home can burn down in four minutes, the video said, so it is critical for people to get out as quickly as possible.

If people are awakened at night, they should get low on the floor and crawl since black smoke may make it impossible to see and deadly smoke rises to the ceiling, firefighters said. Students were reminded many house fires occur at night when families are asleep so it is a serious warning.

Check the door to see if it

is hot and open it cautiously if it is not, firefighters said, then proceed down the hall if safe. Otherwise, they may have to go out a window.

Besides fires, the department responds to medical emergencies, car wrecks, rescue scenes where people are trapped or cannot get down from a high structures, and it does public assistance if someone falls down and is unable to get up but is not injured.

Picks, ropes, stretchers, masks, saws, poles and heavy layers of boots and jackets are used for different operations, the firefighters said, prior to hooking third-grader Zachary Barker into a rescue harness and lifting him off the ground to student chants of "Higher, Higher."

The department's Fire Safety House came to the school Thursday for the younger children to tour under the guidance of Capt. Skip Sykes.

"The firefighters have more fun than the kids," he said. "Especially when we use the hose — although they really love that."

While one group went through the safety house, a trailer equpped with a kitchen, livingroom and bedroom, the other learned about firefighter gear and how to use a fire hose.

Sykes warned children not to play with the stove or kitchen cupbards, to keep their distance from a fireplace, and to go out a bedroom window if a fire hits when they are in bed.

As the bedroom filled with smoke, the young children climbed through the window and escaped.

These activities completed Willows Fire Department's National Fire Safety Week program, which includes a pancake breakfast for students and their parents at the fire station today.

Everybody is invited to eat and tour the facility on South Butte Street, Sykes said, from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Contact Rick Longley at 934-6800 or rlongley@tcnpress.com.