Star-Journbal Editor
Dear Mom and Dad,
Every kid in school, including our third grade class, got to yell their heads off in the [Hillsboro Elementary School] library this past Friday, and do you know what? The librarian didn't tell us to be quiet or anything.
We yelled, Mom! Dad! Wake up! Fire! Fire! Get up! Get up!
The fire chief [Hillsboro Fire Chief Ben Steketee] said we should make lots of noise whenever the smoke alarm goes off, so we did!
We took turns pretending we were asleep on a make-believe bed. When it was my turn, I laid down, and the smoke alarm went, Beep! Beep! Beep!
The chief shouted, "Smoke alarm! Roll out of bed! Crawl under the smoke! Feel the door with the back of your hand!
"It's hot! Out the second exit! Out the window! Where do we go? The safe meeting place!
"He's alive! Yea!"
Everybody cheered for me, and Firepup gave me a Junior Firefighter's badge. I was out of breath and excited from crawling and running so fast.
It felt great to be alive!
There wasn't really a fire. It was all pretend. We crawled under a thing made out of plastic pipe and the smoke was just gray cloth hanging down. The door was cloth, too, and the window wasn't a window.
But it sure seemed real with the alarm beeping and the chief shouting and all the other boys and girls screaming.
And then real fireman came crawling through the door on his hands and knees.
"That's a real fireman," the chief said. "He's wearing fire protective clothing so he doesn't get burned, and he's crawling because he's looking for children."
The fireman looked kind of scary in his suit, but the chief told us never to be afraid or hide from a fireman, because if there's a fire and we can't get out, we need to let him find us.
The fireman took his mask off and it was Mr. [Rusty] Moss! [Third grader] Kalen Moss' dad! A lot of us knew who he was anyway, but he sure looked different with his mask on.
We all got to practice getting out of the bedroom, and every one of us earned a badge.
But some of the students were worried because they didn't have a fire safety plan at home. Their parents haven't made a map to show them how to get out of the house, and they didn't have a safe place to go to.
The chief said it could be a mailbox, or a big tree out front, or even a dog house, but we needed to decide a safe place to meet.
One girl was worried because her bedroom is on the second floor, and she would have to land in thorn bushes if she went out the window.
A boy said he slept in the basement but there weren't any windows in his bedroom, just one door. The chief said he needed to tell his mom and dad that he needed a second way out.
If we can't get out, we're supposed to get close to a window and scream so the firemen can find us. The first thing a fireman is going to do is get the kids out safely.
But it was scary to think that my friends were sleeping in unsafe places, because the chief said people die in fires.
I was thinking, maybe we can all sit down and make a family escape plan, and figure out where our safe place will be. And maybe we can have a practice fire drill at our house.
Wouldn't that be great?
Signed,
Your precious child.
Editor's note,
October is Fire Prevention Month. Parents are encouraged to make escape plans and practice with their children. After what they've learned at school, they're counting on you to take it seriously.
According to the National Safe Kids Campaign and the United States Fire Administration:
— Almost half of residential fire-related deaths among children ages 9 and under (40 percent) occur when the child is attempting to escape, is unable to act, or is acting irrationally.
— Homes without working smoke alarms are more than twice as likely to have a fire. Two-thirds of residential fires that kill children occur in homes without a working smoke alarm.
— Children in homes without working smoke alarms are at greater risk of fire-related death and injury in the event of a fire.
— Children ages 5 and under are more than twice as likely to die in a fire than any other age group.
— Children from low-income families are at greater risk for fire-related death and injury. Low-income families tend to lack working smoke alarms, live in substandard housing, use alternative heating sources, and have economic constraints on providing adequate adult supervision.
