Getting an Early Education In Fire Safety

Getting an Early Education In Fire Safety

Students learned how to crawl under the smoke layer.

ROCK SPRINGS – Home fires killed more than 2,700 people in the United States in 2014 and fire departments in the United States responded to more than 360,000 home fires.

Starting fire education as early as possible has been a goal of the Rock Springs Fire Department. Each year, as part of Fire Prevention Week, the RSFD travels from school to school, educating the young residents. Students and firefighters alike, look forward to this week all year.

This year’s presentation has added a new onlooker. Even though he is not new to Fire Prevention Week, this is Rock Springs Fire Chief Jim Wamsley’s first as a member of the RSFD.

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“It’s a wonderful program,” Wamsley said as members of the RSFD presented to an excited group at Northpark. “What I see is a lot of dedicated people.”

Watching the amount of work the firefighters put in with the presentation, scheduling and everything else was impressive to Wamsley. He said they put in a lot of work and effort in, and it shows, calling the presentation a “game changer.”

At Tuesday night’s Rock Springs Council meeting, Mayor Carl Demshar officially declared the week of Oct. 4 through Oct. 10 as Fire Prevention Week in Rock Springs.

Not only did he give the figures of home fires during the presentation, but Demshar also said working smoke alarms cut the risk of dying in reported home fires in half. Three out of five home fire deaths resulted from fires in homes without working smoke alarms.

This year’s theme, Hear the Beep Where You Sleep, is focused on fire alarms and the importance of working smoke alarms. RSFD Firefighter Tony Colbert said they can’t emphasize enough the importance of smoke alarms and checking them often to make sure they are working.

“Having that makes a big difference in our homes,” he said.

Colbert said RSFD Cpt. Nat Reese has done an exemplary job preparing for Fire Prevention Week and they are fortunate to be able to spend time in the schools. They will visit with over 2,000 kids throughout the district.

Back at Northpark on Wednesday, Wamsley stressed the importance of working smoke alarms. He also spoke about the importance of having an evacuation plan at your home and knowing the route well.

Wamsley explained that, often when a person is awakened in the middle of the night they try to leave the home in a normal fashion.

But what if the normal route is blocked?

Wamsley said making the second route just as familiar as the normal route could save your life.