Each week a column of the Sylvan Lake News records calls answered by our volunteer firefighters. At all hours of the day or night, they are paged with a report that could be as minor as malfunctioning alarms and as major as significant houses or buildings burning.
These people train for all types of circumstances. They know their way around our town and rural districts. They know how to use the equipment which can extinguish fires or cut people from wrecked vehicles.
They’re prepared.
This week, the firefighters presented a message to over 1,000 students in Sylvan Lake’s Kindergarten to Grade 3 classes about being prepared
For the second year in a row they hosted Juno award nominee Mary Lambert with her Sing Out Fire Safety show. We sat through one of the four presentations and were impressed with the messages she imparted.
Matches and lighters are tools, not toys, she instructed the youngsters through her interactive performance.
Perhaps the most important message though, was the five steps of The Great Escape.
She implored the youngsters to talk to their parents about what they’d learned. We hope these students took heart and have worked with their parents and guardians to develop a plan to get out of their homes safely in the event that a fire erupts.
The five step plan starts with drawing a floor plan of your home, including every room, and then marking two exits out of each room and how to get out of the house.
“Get out and stay out until you know it’s safe to go back in,” she encouraged, telling students not to go back for their favourite toys, their pets, or any other reason.
Another of the steps involves setting up a meeting place outside the house where all family members can gather and ensure they’re all safe if forced to leave.
Lambert’s message also included the need to practice fire evacuation plans so that everybody knows exactly what to do if they’re startled awake in the middle of the night by smoke detectors. And through another song she asked students to all go home and check their smoke detectors and alarms to make sure they’re working.
As we approach Fire Prevention Week, this is a good time to talk to your children about your escape routes, the dangers of fire and to plan in the case of an unforeseen emergency.
Be ready
Next week members of Sylvan Lake Scouts and Guides are doing their annual Food Bank Drive on Thursday night (Oct. 10). This event has become important to the food bank as by this time of year their supplies are dwindling after campaigns at other times of the year. Please be ready when the young people come calling at your doors and donate to this worthy campaign.