Fire Department

What I learned today:

First Visit –

We reviewed helpful and harmful fires, where to go in a fire, and how matches and lighters are tools for adults.
We learned about calling for help in an emergency–9-1-1.
We talked about learning the parts of our address: our building number, street name, and the municipality—Mt Lebanon. Knowing all of the parts of our address gets the closest helpers to come as fast as possible.
Some of us have apartment numbers or letters, which is a very important part of our address.
We talked about what happens if we touch something hot, like a cookie sheet. We get burned.
We learned that if we get a burn, the best way to treat it is to put it under cold water for at least a few minutes. We still need to tell an adult so they can check and see if we need to do anything else, but cooling off a burn in the sink is something we can do ourselves.
We learned how to tell which side of the sink has cold water. We learned that the cold water sometimes has a blue mark on the faucet or the word cold. We also learned that cold water is always on the right!
We then got a “pretend burn” and practiced cooling it under cold water at the sink.
If we don’t know it already, our homework is to learn all three parts of our addresses!

Second Visit –

We reviewed the parts of our addresses and how to cool a burn.
We talked about how to get outside in an emergency in a large building. What if the way we know is blocked?
We talked about firefighter’s favorite sign, the EXIT sign–it shows us shortcuts to get outside.
The EXIT sign is our favorite because it helps people get out of unfamiliar buildings like shopping malls, airports and hospitals.
We learned that when we hear a fire alarm we need to find the nearest EXIT sign to point the way out.
We learned that just like in big buildings we have something in our home that tells us to find the way out and fast.  The SMOKE DETECTOR!
We learned that fires make lots of toxic, dangerous smoke that we can’t breathe.
We learned the best way to get out of a fire is to CRAWL LOW UNDER THE SMOKE and towards the exit.
We practiced crawling low under “pretend” smoke that looked an awful lot like a black sheet of plastic.
We learned that WHEN WE ARE OUT WE STAY OUT. The firefighters will rescue any people or pets still inside, but our job is to get outside to the meeting place and stay there.
We were assigned homework: To make our family check the smoke alarms in our homes. The fire department will even come help us, and give us one if we don’t have any, for FREE!

To find out more about our smoke detector program, click HERE.

Learn more about Escaping from Fire