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Salisbury firefighters take fire safety message into elementary schools

Published October 16. 2024 11:44AM
by JIM MARSH Special to The Press

Like their first responder brethren across the United States, Salisbury firefighters last week took the message of fire safety to impressionable elementary school students in classrooms across Salisbury Township.

Western Salisbury Volunteer Fire Company Chief Joshua Wells, the lead school fire prevention presenter for many years, emphasized the importance of working smoke detectors in every home bedroom.

“I have some easy homework for you tonight,” Wells told youngsters in Salisbury’s public and private schools during National Fire Prevention Week, Oct. 6-12.

“I want you to look in your bedroom to see if you have a smoke detector there. That’s very, very important because smoke detectors save lives. If you don’t have one, tell your parents that you need one. If they can’t get one, tell your teacher at school and firefighters at your fire department will provide one,” Wells said.

“If you hear that three-beep alarm wherever you are, you ‘Get out and Stay Out’ and get to a safe place,” Wells emphasized.

Wells also stressed matches and lighters are not toys and don’t belong in children’s hands. He chose students in each school to demonstrate the “Stop, Drop and Roll” technique to extinguish a clothing fire. He described the 911 telephone emergency line process to get fire, police or medical help in an emergency.

Several of Wells’ firefighter “helpers” from both Eastern and Western Salisbury fire departments transitioned from street clothes to full turnout “bunker gear” and crawled among the youngsters for “high-fives” to help lessen the scary factor of figures in protective gear coming to help.

Students also had an opportunity to see apparatus from both fire companies up close and to ask firefighters question about equipment use.

The theme for National Fire Prevention Week 2024 is “Smoke alarms: Make them work for you!” The goal of the campaign is to educate people about the importance of having working smoke alarms in their homes.

Wells provided additional tips for fire safety: Test your smoke alarms once a month and change batteries twice a year in spring and fall when the clocks change.

Fire Prevention Week is observed annually Oct. 6-12. President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed it a national observance in 1925, making it the longest-running public health observance in the United States.

Because of the great interest expressed by students at Moravian Academy’s Swain School campus during the tearing down of the old and rebuilding of the new Western Salisbury Volunteer Fire Company’s Swain Station, students are invited to the station for their annual school fire safety program presentation. The program has previously been presented on the front steps of the school building.
Western Salisbury firefighter Nathaniel Batten gives young Swain School students the opportunity to experience flowing water from a fire engine hose Oct. 7 at the fire company’s new Swain Station during a school fire safety program.
PRESS PHOTOS BY JIM MARSHAt a fire safety program presented to Salisbury Elementary School students Oct. 9, Western Salisbury Volunteer Fire Company Chief Joshua Wells emphasizes matches and lighters are not toys and they should be handed over to an adult.
Salisbury Elementary School students demonstrate the “Stop, Drop and Roll” technique that should be followed if someone’s clothes catch fire. All of the student participants are children of Salisbury firefighters.
After changing from street clothes to full fire protection “bunker gear,” firefighters circulate among Salisbury Elementary School students for “high-fives” to demonstrate that firefighters are their friends and youngsters should not be frightened of the bulky “scary” gear costumes.
After their inside fire safety program, Salisbury Elementary School students enjoy a chance to see Eastern and Western Salisbury firefighting vehicles in the driveway outside their school.
Western Salisbury Chief Joshua Wells uses a smoke detector to familiarize St. Thomas More students with the sound only a smoke detector can use. “That sounds means ‘Get out and stay out’ of a structure when the alarm sounds,” Wells told the students. STM students enjoyed an outdoor fire safety program with Eastern and Western Salisbury firefighters Oct. 10 during National Fire Safety Week.