Spokane Valley firefighters stress safety to students

The Spokane Valley Fire Department has fired up its annual program to teach fire safety to second- and third-graders in the Spokane Valley area, sending firefighters to speak in every elementary school.

The program has been running so long that Assistant Fire Marshal Bill Clifford said no one remembers when it started, but it’s been at least 30 years. Every October, in honor of National Fire Safety Week the second week of October, the department talks to kids about escaping their home in a fire and what to do if they find matches or a lighter.

“We’ll bring the fire truck to the school and give the kids a tour,” Clifford said. “We’ll put our air tank on and the face mask on. We’ll talk to the kids like that so they can hear that we sound like Darth Vader.”

It’s important to teach kids about fire safety when they’re young, Clifford said, and there are few other programs available. One of the goals is to avoid having kids play with matches or lighters and start fires. “We want to teach them young, and I believe that helps,” he said.

The fire safety program for second-graders makes them honorary Junior Fire Marshals. The program for third-graders brings a fire safety house to each school to help teach students about kitchen fire safety, fireplaces, candles and fireplaces.

On Monday, Capt. Chris Cornelius started his day with several classes of second-graders at Broadway Elementary School. He has been helping lead the program for 10 years and easily talked to a room full of students about becoming Junior Fire Marshals by learning about fire safety and passing along what they learned to their families.

The children watched a fire safety video that introduced the topics of smoke detectors, evacuation plans, crawling to keep under the smoke and using “stop, drop and roll” if their clothes catch on fire.

Cornelius urged the students to sleep with their doors closed at night. “That door acts as a barrier to keep fire and smoke out,” he said.

If children hear a smoke alarm sounding they need to feel their door before trying to exit, he said. “If the door is warm or hot, don’t go that way,” he said.

He also told children to get out quickly and not to go back for favorite toys or try to put the fire out themselves. No one should go back inside for pets, Cornelius said.

“You guys matter,” he said. “You guys have to get out. I’ve gotten dogs out of burning buildings, cats out of burning buildings, fish out of burning buildings. We will get your pets.”

A fire truck and crew will visit the school next week to give kids a chance to see what firefighters look and sound like when wearing their gear. Cornelius told the students that it’s okay to be afraid during a fire, but they can’t hide from firefighters.

“I need you guys to be brave,” he said. “Don’t hide, go outside.”

It’s important to have smoke detectors on every floor of a home and preferably outside each bedroom, Cornelius said. Anyone who needs a smoke detector can call the fire department, he said.

“We will send firefighters to your house to install smoke detectors for free,” he said. “They’re that important.”

Part of the fire safety homework children were given to take home was to draw a floor plan of their house and identify two exits from every room. If someone lives on the third floor of an apartment building and the main door is blocked they should open a window and yell for help, Cornelius said.

The department has ladder trucks just for that purpose, he said. “We can get to any window in Spokane Valley,” he said.