Chinook Third Grade Teacher, Amanda Davies approached National Fire Prevention week by taking a look back and reviving a popular exercise from the past. "Before Covid we used to do a similar style of education for the students as the one we just did. Last year we had the firefighters stop in each class and give a presentation. Many people had expressed interest in bringing back the more hands on drill."

Amanda visited with her Husband Ian, a Lieutenant with the Chinook Volunteer Fire Department (CVFD) and together they got the ball rolling. CVFD Chief Kraig Hansen, along with volunteer fire fighters Debbie Cross, Scott Gallus, Jason Metcalf, Ian Davies, Karla Zarn and Retired Volunteer Preston Gilmore got together to make it happen.

The fire safety presentation was set up at the Girl Scout House at Sweet Memorial Park with the south half being used for a brief presentation from Chief Hansen with other firefighters adding input when needed. "Chief Hansen's talk lasted about 15 minutes and highlighted the importance of having a safe meeting spot outside your home, working fire alarms. Those were the two main points, because a lot of kids don't have that safe meeting spot established," said Davies.

Each class got a very well put together demonstration that included a very realistic drill, "The kids were on the south end with the kitchen, they had the door sealed off, so the smoke wasn't coming through the doors. When they (CVFD) opened the doors, the kids then crawled through to escape," said Davies. "Ian was a firefighter in the smoke filled room and provided voice instructions to guide the kids. The idea was to make the kids better aware of what a firefighter sounds like with a helmet on. Karla Zarn was at the end of the drill and the teachers were behind the students as everyone crawled through. We then exited and met at the previously discussed safe meeting spot outside the girls scout house at the flagpole."

Chief Hansen is very fond of the drill, "We have a smoke machine that make it so thick you can't see, but we can control it. It has a timer. It's a great tool, it's realistic and it really shows how the smoke rises and then how it starts banking after it reaches the ceiling." Hansen went on to say, "We teach the kids to crawl low and to respond to the firefighters calls and to not hide from them. There were some kids that have never had the course and all of them really should."

Hansen stressed the two main points the presentation was trying to teach the kids as well, "Hopefully we got the kids to understand the importance of a meeting place. We don't want the parents going out the north door and the kids going out the south door in case of a fire. Everyone needs to know where to meet ahead of time. We talked about the importance of fire detectors and handed out a bunch of fliers, flags, posters and stickers to the kids that State Farm gave us to hand out."

The Kindergarten Class went first, beginning at 8:30 in the morning. Each subsequent grade followed accordingly in half hour segments. "I think it was very good, very informative. Made them realize the importance of the safe meeting spot. The firefighters tried to not make it too scary, but it was tough on some of the kids," said Davies. "It was nice to hear from the firefighters that the kids were very receptive and polite during the exercise. During the talk about fire alarms a significant number of kids didn't have them, and they were told to let us teachers know."

After the last class concluded the demonstrations a number of firefighters returned to the Meadowlark with the students, "There were a few that had lunch with kids. Some even joined the kids on the playground for some outside fun. It was a really great interaction between the students and emergency service personnel that the kids don't normally get," concluded Davies.