By Sarah J. Ketchum
The Daily Press
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — “Firefighter Kate” isn’t a teacher. But you might not have known that watching her interact with first-graders from Saunders Elementary in Newport News late last month.
Kate Barr is a firefighter-medic with the Newport News Fire Department. I was invited to watch her and others teach fire safety. The program was one of several put on by local fire departments during the month of October.
The students interacted with firefighter-medics, got to see and touch some of the equipment and participated in a handful of hands-on activities. They also toured the inside of a fire engine and an ambulance.
In one activity, Barr asked the students to identify the tool in the room that lives on the ceiling. They guessed correctly and pointed to the smoke alarm. She showed them how to test it and allowed one student to demonstrate. Your smoke detectors in your homes should be tested once per month, she told them.
“If the batteries are dead on your toys, they’re not going to work,” she said so they’d understand why the alarms need to be tested.
Barr kept the students’ attention throughout her instruction, asking them questions and telling them to repeat certain phrases, much like you’d expect from a teacher in a classroom.
Part of the wide range of skills our local first responders learn in the Tidewater Regional Fire Academy is how to interact with and teach children. In addition to school programs, they put on other community presentations, so it’s important for them to be comfortable working with kids, Lisa King, the department’s public education coordinator told me.
“Some of them have no experience (with children) except they were once a kid themselves,” she said.
The training also helps ensure they know what to teach and that the information presented is consistent. That’s important when school instruction time is used.
“We’ve got to make sure it’s a very valuable, worthy program,” she said.
Some of the fire safety instruction was held inside the department’s “Smoke House,” where the group of about 25 first-graders I followed learned important information, like creating a home escape plan and using “stop, drop and roll” if your clothes catch on fire.
The mobile house, purchased with a federal grant in 2000, doubles as a classroom and mock bedroom. The bedroom area fills with smoke so students can practice crawling on the floor to escape a fire. They’re also taught to test the door handle to see if it’s hot. If it is, fire is on the other side, and they should escape through the window.
Newport News Fire Department Public Educator Roxanne Kohlman assisted students during the drill, keeping them low to the ground. Some students were afraid to crawl through the smoke, and she reassured them through it.
Fire educators hope the students will take what they learned and encourage their parents to practice at home. Everyone should have an escape plan because thick smoke can cause you to become disoriented, and you have just a couple of minutes to safely escape a fire. But it’s especially important for children who might become scared and hide.
Kohlman asked the students why they should never hide in a closet if their house is on fire. They told her it’s because smoke and fire can get them in there.
“Kiss those brains, you’re exactly right,” she said.
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