By Chandra M. Hayslett
The Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey)
PISCATAWAY, N.J. — As smoke filled the room, there was a slight sense of panic as 26 third-graders crawled through a window yesterday during a fire safety drill in a special trailer that visited the Eisenhower School in Piscataway.
The children gathered at the designated meeting place that Millburn Township firefighter Jeff Wanamaker pointed out before the exercise. The teacher counted the students. Twenty-seven went into the building, but only 26 came out.
“Figure out who’s missing,” Wanamaker yelled.
The students looked around, then shouted “Lucas.”
Wanamaker asked who would be willing to go back into the burning building to rescue Lucas. Nearly everyone’s hand shot in the air.
Wanamaker’s face dropped.
“You failed,” he said. “Never, ever, ever go back into a burning building.”
That was one of many lessons Wanamaker, who has been a fireman for 17 years, drilled into the Piscataway students yesterday as they visited the Saint Barnabas Fire Safety House, a two-story trailer set up to resemble a home, that was parked at Eisenhower School. Students visited three rooms in the makeshift residence and pointed out potential fire hazards.
In the living room, students found a lighter and matches, a fireplace without a cover, an electrical cord and candles.
“Raise your hand if you play with matches,” Wanamaker said. “One match can start a fire and a fire doubles every 30 seconds. So, how do you think this room will look after two minutes?”
In the kitchen, a roll of paper towels, an oven mitt and a can of Lysol were on the stove, and a dish towel hung from the oven door handle.
Wanamaker told students that fire needs three things — oxygen, fuel and heat — to burn. He referred to the three as a “fire triangle” as he made a triangle with both thumbs and index fingers.
“If you take one away, the triangle collapses,” he said relating the triangle to a grease fire in a pot. Take away the oxygen by covering the fire with another pot or pot top. Or take away the fuel by turning off the stove, or the heat by moving the pot from the stove, he said.
Not all the lessons involved fire.
In the bathroom, students learned to keep appliances, such as hair dryers, away from water, not to play with cleaning products and not to take medicine not prescribed for them.
“Different medicines are for different bodies. Don’t touch anybody’s medicine,” Wanamaker warned.
After going through the list of dangers, Wanamaker hit a switch and smoke funneled through a grate in a wall, the smoke alarm sounded and students were told to get out as the room became cloudy.
“Stay low and get down on your face. Start crawling. Follow the person in front of you,” Wanamaker yelled as the students climbed out the window.
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