100th Anniversary of Fire Prevention Week Focuses on Home Fire Escape

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine (WAGM) -This year marks the 100th Anniversary of Fire Prevention Week. This year’s campaign is ‘Fire Won’t Wait, Plan your escape’. Newssource 8s Jonathon Eigenmann has more.

Adam Rider, Presque Isle Deputy Fire Chief: " Every year during fire prevention week, this gives us a great chance to talk to families and talk to kids about fire safety. It’s very important, you tell a three- or four-year-old that they have to test their smoke alarms and they have to plan and practice a fire escape plan, they’ll keep haunting their parents until they get it done which is really great”.

Since 1922, Fire prevention week has been an important time to talk about and plan for fire safety. This year, the focus is on educating everyone on how to plan and practice a home fire escape especially due to today’s homes burning faster than ever. And According to the National Fire protection association, you may have as little as two minutes to safely escape a home fire from the time the smoke alarm sounds.

Adam Rider, Presque Isle Fire Deputy Chief: " It is very important to plan and practice a fire escape plan for each..each house. Just like you know we tell people just like doing fire drills at school, we need to do fire drills at home. It’s very important, its very important to have working smoke alarms. If you don’t test them once a month, you don’t know if they’re going to work”.

And from what he’s seen, Rider says most causes for fire’s can start small and build in something bigger, and with the increasing price of oil, some may start using wood stoves in their homes

Adam Rider, Presque Isle fire deputy chief: " We have a lot of smoking related fires, we have a lot of kitchen/cooking fires, you know smaller stuff that builds into larger stuff. Heating systems, you know with wood stoves, with the price of oil, we suspect there’s going to be a lot more people using wood stoves.

To further the knowledge and preparation of fire safety in the community Presque Isle fire deputy Chief Adam rider, and his team enjoy visiting schools or talking to younger kids about fire safety. And while visiting the schools, the firefighters try to get the kids involved in activities or drills in case of a fire, and they might focus on different things depending on the age group they are speaking to.

Adam Rider, Presque Isle Deputy Fire Chief: " It goes by age group but you know the younger kids we go over the stop, drop, and roll you know if your clothes catch on fire; practicing fire escape plans. We like to show you know especially the younger kids; firefighters you know not to be afraid of us. We dress up in our gear; we can look kind of scary , its really important to show kids that you know were just there to help them and not to hide (dissolves to) it’s amazing you know, for three or four years you see the same kids and it’s amazing how they progress and learn fire safety”.

Once again, Rider reminds people to frequently check their smoke alarms to make sure they work and encourages them to plan and practice your home fire escape plans, because it can make a big difference in you and your family’s well-being if the times comes.

Jonathon Eigenmann, Newssource 8

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