20 years of teaching fire safety to kids
The fifth-grade program lets kids get up close with firefighters and their equipment.
For 20 years, the RomeFloyd County Fire Department has offered fire safety training and education for area fifth-graders, to share with them how to respond in an emergency situation and to spread their knowledge with family and friends, according to Linda Patty, a fire safety educator with the department.
Patty said since the department works for the residents of Rome and Floyd County, the program is a public service
the department offers. It’s a way of disseminating the information needed to keep residents safe in the event of a fire or a
wreck and to also break down any fear kids may have of encountering a firefighter, she said.
The program reaches
public schools in both the Rome and Floyd County school systems along with private schools throughout the school year. Kids get a
chance to visit the fire department’s stations and its training center, as well as firefighters pulling the engines up to schools for visits, even spraying the kids down with a fire hose at times.
Having kids visit a station gives them a chance to see firefighters in all their gear, and since “they kind of look like a transformer,” they get a chance to interact with them in a non-emergency environment, Patty said.
The department also goes out to the Boys & Girls Club of Rome twice a week, as well.
At the department’s training center, firefighters demonstrated the use of the Jaws of Life, an extrication tool, in getting victims of wrecks out of their vehicles.
“Hopefully it’s the only time they see that,” Patty said.
At the end of the day, Patty said, the goal is to make sure kids know that firefighters are there to help and can rescue them from a variety of dangerous situations.