Photo by Sarah Finnegan.
The Vestavia Fire Department takes around the smoke house every October for National Fire Safety Month.
All children take part in mandatory fire drills throughout the school year, so they are prepared in the event of a fire, but how many children go through their own fire-safety routine at home?
The answer is not many.
“[The kids] can develop muscle memory from fire drills at school, but not necessarily at home,” said Fire Marshal Scott Key of the Vestavia Fire Department. “Sometimes, the smoke alarms can be alarming, and the kids freeze, and they don’t know what to do.”
Each year, the city of Vestavia will see anywhere between 10 to 15 fires, and nearly all of them will affect a child or a group of children.
To help prepare kids for the event of a fire in their home, the Vestavia Fire Department takes around their own smoke house every October in recognition of National Fire Safety Month.
“It’s a replica of a residence,” Key said. “It’s basically a travel trailer.”
The 14-year-old house is outfitted much like any other home, but smaller. It has a kitchen, a fireplace, carpeting, a small bedroom and windows. “Basically what it does is it teaches children what to do at home in the event of a fire,” he said.
By encouraging children to take part in their own fire-safety education, the goal is to help prevent injury or death due to fires.
“If you save one person, then the whole program is worth it,” Key said.
The fire department visits different local schools and events with the smoke house to help supplement the instruction teachers and family members already have given their children. Outfitted with a warmer in the back of the door and able to be filled with smoke, the fire department is able to simulate a home fire so kids can learn what to do.
“It’s kind of a fun environment,” Key said. “They check the door, crawl through the room, go through a window and slide down a slide on the exterior of the smokehouse.”
He said the schools are a captive audience and great for teaching fire safety skills. Because the teachers already have supplied them with general information, the fire department is able to supplement that with activities to enforce what they already have learned.
Some children end up going home and telling their parents that, as a family, they need to develop an action plan to be prepared.
“A lot of times now the kids’ bedrooms are on (one) side of the house and the parents’ room, or the master suite, is on the other side of the house,” Key said. “That’s a lot of surface area. There’s a lot of room between the parents’ room and the kid’s room. So the child can’t necessarily rely on their parent to tell them what to do if they can’t get to them.”
To learn more about fire safety and try the smoke house, find the Vestavia Fire Department at the Liberty Park Baptist Church Oct. 13 at 10 a.m.
