Fire Safety Training

A Lesson for Life

By Sharon Waldrop

Would your child know what to do if he detected a fire in your home? The right answer could save his life.

Jonelle, a mother of two in Las Vegas, Nev., asked her son what he would do if he heard a fire alarm or smoke detector sound off. His answer gave her the chills. "He said that he would hide," says Jonelle. She knows how hard it would be to find her son if he hid during a fire. This response prompted Jonelle and her husband to teach their children what they should do in the event of a fire.

What should you teach your child to do if he detects a fire in the home? "The actions to take would vary, depending on the time of day and where the fire is located," says Jim Sheppard, chairman, Public Fire Safety and Education Unit at the Levittown, Pa. Fire Company #1.

If the fire occurs during the day and the child was awake and not in bed before detecting the fire, the first thing a child should do is to tell an adult in the home, if it is safe to do so. If the child awakens from sleep and discovers fire, "Roll out of bed and crawl across the floor to the bedroom door," says Sheppard. "I call this the 'Stay Low and Go method.'"

Sheppard recommends that parents teach their children the following:

• Get out and stay out! Toys, clothes and other things can be replaced. People cannot.
• Never try to put a fire out by yourself. This wastes valuable escape time.
• Call 911 (or your local emergency number) from a neighbor's house.
• Close as many doors between the fire and the rest of the house as safely as possible.
• Sleep with bedroom doors shut.
• To detect fire behind a door, feel the door with the back of your hand, which is more sensitive than your palm.

Want to see more?

• Teaching Your Children the Dangers of Strangers
• Safety and Hazards Quiz
• Fire Safety for Preschoolers
• Meet Don Younker, a firefighter who delivered his own baby!
• Talk about it!