Smoke rises
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- August
- 15
Fire Prevention Week isn’t until October (it’s coordinated to fall on the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871) but I ended up hearing a great story about how those preschool “stop-drop-and-roll” lessons, etc. really do sink in.
Gordon Wren, Rockland’s fire and emergency services coordinator, was visiting today. He recalled a New Year’s party he was at some years ago in which the hostess left a dessert, set to heat in the microwave for three minutes, cooking away for 30 minutes. Smoke alarms — and that acrid microwave fire smoke — alerted her, and her guests, to her mistake.
So, as all the adults ran around the kitchen, inhaling the smoke and coughing, opening windows (mistake — you’re feeding the fire, too), one little girl, about 7, lay on the floor and began to crawl to an exit. Gordon crouched down with her, and noted that she was doing the right thing — smoke rises, and you are supposed to stay low (this from the American Red Cross: “If smoke is present, crawl low to escape. Because smoke rises in a fire, breathable air is often close to the floor.”
Where did she learn this key fire safety technique? During a Fire Prevention Week visit from her local volunteer fire department at her preschool.
“Adults think they know it all,” Gordon said, “but kids are sponges.”
Those little lessons, of course, can save lives.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 at 5:05 pm by Nancy Cutler.
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