I’m no stranger to emergency preparedness. As a City
employee charged with responding during disasters, Community Emergency Response
Team (CERT) graduate, ARC supporter, and with a family of firefighters, I’m
well aware that community and personal disasters can strike at any time. My
husband and I have discussed our emergency plan and we know where we would go
and what we would do.
Recently, however, I was talking about fire safety with one
of the Fire Stoppers Preparedness Specialists when I had a simple, yet salient
“Ah-ha” moment: I know what to do in case
of a fire, but does my three-year-old?
That following weekend I pulled out the Fire Stoppers
coloring book with my daughter. We colored our way through the book, talking
about what to do in a fire. Then it was
time for some hands on practice.
After an explanation of Stop, Drop, and Roll, we took turns
exclaiming “Your clothes are on fire!” dropping to the ground, and rolling out
the fire. We were quickly joined also by her crawling baby brother and the dog,
invoking giggles all around.
Next, we talked about evacuating. I showed Skylar the smoke
detector, explaining that it will beep when there is smoke or fire in the air
and that when she hears that, she needs to crawl to the nearest exit (or as she
says the “secret exit”), always feeling the door before opening it in case
there is fire on the other side. We picked a designated safe spot in both the
back yard and the front yard and talked about who would meet her there in an
emergency.
My step-mom, a long time volunteer firefighter, noted that
many times kids are scared of firefighter in their full gear, so soon we will
be planning a trip to the local fire station for that experience. For now, I’ve
shown her pictures from the internet of what a firefighter looks like in their
full gear so that she knows that they are there to help.
It turns out, fire safety and preparations with a 3 year old
was much easier than I had thought it would be. And my daughter’s new favorite
activity? Playing ‘fire drill,’ of course!
-Shannon M. Simonelli
If you have any questions or would like more information please feel free to contact me at sandra.santiago-pinheiro@redcross.org.
It helps to teach the kids about fire safety while they’re still young. A little knowledge can already make a big difference and can already save lives.
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American red cross was always the great and Fire-stopping is no doubt one of a great job of you. your services are awesome in all over the world as i have personally seen it in Afghanistan that how you are helping the war affected people
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