Firefighter teaching fire safety at school

Fire Department

3rd Grade

What I learned today:

First Visit –

  • We reviewed the meeting place from last year and the four requirements for a good meeting place.
  • The meeting place is where we want to end up. How do we get there?
  • We have to have a plan and we have to practice.
  • We made a floor plan of a house and drew escape routes from each room on the plan.
  • Each room has to have TWO WAYS OUT. The first way is the one we use most of the time, this is called the PRIMARY ESCAPE ROUTE. This is usually a door. 
    The second way out is called the SECONDARY ESCAPE ROUTE. This is usually a window.
  • We learned that if we are in our room when the smoke alarm sounds we should crawl to the door and SNEAK A PEEK—crack it open to check for smoke. If the route is clear we take our primary escape route.
  • If it is blocked by heat, smoke, or flame, we close our door and go to the secondary route.
  • We signal the fire department by yelling and waving our arms or a blanket. This even works if the window is in the back of the house because a firefighter will always walk all the way around a building that is on fire.
  • We learned not to jump out of windows or climb onto porch roofs unless we can’t stay in our room.
  • We watched a video called The Great Escape Challenge about two families practicing their plans.
  • We learned that we should always check a door for smoke or heat before opening it when the smoke detector is going off.
  • We learned that we must never go back inside a burning building. We GET OUT AND STAY OUT!
  • Our homework is to draw a floor plan of our house with two ways out of each room. We need to practice our plan with our family.

Second Visit –

  • We reviewed escape planning and made sure everyone made an escape plan for their home.
  • We learned that we can prevent many harmful fires by happening, and learned the most common causes of house fires: Unattended cooking, candles, heating devices and electrical issues.
  • Most of these fires can be prevented by making sure an adult is watching them, and turning them off or putting them out when we leave the room.