Fire Prevention Week, 2008 Edition

Once again it was Fire Prevention week, and as I hope I can do for the rest of my life, I signed up for all five days. The timing is perfect for me since all of our school visits take place from 9:30-11, and even with the necessary clean-up and after care, we're still free long before I need to be in NYC for the afternoon. But the main draw for me is getting to be in schools and day care centers with little kids once again. I'll never outgrow that.

The big days for some are when we visit the big schools (Duzine and Lenape) which put us in front off over a thousand lower schoolers all told. The lieutenant does an outstanding job teaching the kids all of the important points, and clearly they love his presentation. I really enjoy seeing Emmett with all of his friends. My favorite school visits, however, are those we make to the small day care centers. It may seem challenging to perform in front of 170 third graders, but it can be equally challenging to get up in front of 15 tots while the air is infused with a bulging Diaper Genie. It's funny how diapers are harder to withstand once your own kids are out of them.

Trickier than the smell is the challenge of teaching little ones about fire safety without causing them to freak out. Last year it seemed that many of the children became upset when they saw the fire fighter disappear into an face mask as we demonstrated what we look like when we go 'on air.' This is important since kids need to recognize the looks and sounds of a fully geared-up fire fighter, but it's hard for little kids to understand that the nice person standing up in front of them is still there when the mask comes on. Psychologists call this 'object permanence.' Shirra suggested that one of the fire fighters enter the room while on air, as this had apparently worked with Emmett's 3's class back in Brooklyn, but we seemed to get the same results either way: Most kids were fine, and a few were a bit scared.

In addition to helping kids recognize what a fire fighter looks like, our main role is to teach the children about fire, smoke, smoke alarms, meeting places outside the home, and other safety tips. But the part of the day that they might remember best is when we let them sit in the fire truck.

Tomorrow is our last day of this year's safety week. I'll miss the time spent with the little kids and will be looking forward to October of 2009.