The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Firefighters challenge schools to “Sound the Alarm”
ONEIDA, N.Y. >> The city of Oneida Fire Department is challenging schools across the district again this year to step up and “Sound The Alarm.”
“This is a challenge that the Oneida Fire Department has issued to all the elementary schools in the school district at the beginning of October,” Firefighter Jeremy Carnahan said. “So far, Durhamville Elementary School has submitted the most videos, but we’re only halfway there.”
Carnahan said the “Sounding the Alarm” challenge is asking teachers, principals and students to go home and make a video of themselves testing their smoke detector and or changing out the batteries and emailing the video to Fire Administrator Kathy Erdo at kerdo@oneidacity.com.
Carnahan said it is extremely important for people to test their smoke detectors and change their batteries out yearly. In the United States, three out of five fire fatalities have no or non-working smoke detectors.
“Our goal, since it’s Fire Prevention Month, is to get everyone to test and change out their batteries in their smoke detectors to make sure they work,” Carnahan said.
Any student who submits a video to The City of Oneida Fire Department’s Facebook page gets entered into a contest for a chance to win several prizes this year. The prizes this year will be five pizza parties — one for each elementary school. Two bicycles will be awarded for the video entries with the most likes on their video, one boy and one girl bike donated by Chuck Fox from community bikes out of Hamilton.
One extremely lucky child who submits a video entry will be selected at random for a VIP Ride in a city of Oneida fire truck from their house to their school and the elementary school with the most videos fromthe school district win a luncheon for the staff provided by Napoleons’ Café.
“Just because we’re challenging the elementary school, it doesn’t mean the general public shouldn’t do the same,” Carnahan said. “They should go home, test their smoke detectors and change out the batteries if needed. This is a safety issue that we’re trying to promote, and we’re trying to promote that everyone gets out of a fire alive.”
A fire doubles in size every 30 seconds, Carnahan said, and having an early warning is crucial.
Children grades pre-K through fifth-grade have until Oct. 31 at 3 p.m. to submit their videos. The winners of the contest will be announced on the City of Oneida Fire Department’s Facebook page on Nov. 7.
It may be helpful for students to upload their video using a Gmail account, as the Oneida Fire Department has found that this seems to work the best. If you don’t have a Gmail account you can simply sign up for one for free.
Check out the videos of different elementary schools stepping up to Sound the Alarm at www.facebook.com/OneidaCityFireDept
Please share your “sound the alarm challenge” and don’t forget to like your favorite videos.
“Our goal, since it’s Fire Prevention Month, is toget everyone to test and change out their batteries in their smoke detectors tomake sure they work.”
— Jeremy Carnahan, firefighter