LINGLE – The Lingle Volunteer Fire Department hosted a fire safety day at the Lingle-Fort Laramie Elementary School on Friday, Oct. 21, in conjunction with Fire Prevention Week through the National Fire Protection Association.  

Members of the fire department informed elementary students of several safety considerations in the event of a house fire. Additionally, the group discussed and demonstrated basic life saving measures in the event of a person experiencing a cardiac event. 

Lingle Volunteer Firefighter Logan Dailey opened the day with discussion about how to properly respond to a fire at one’s home. Dailey asked the students questions about how they would respond to a fire or smoke in their home. 

“What do you do if your house is on fire?” Dailey asked.

“Call 911!” one student replied. 

Dailey asked the students what they would do if their smoke detector in their home was going off while they were sleeping.

“Check the door handle with the back of your hand and see if it’s hot,” another student replied. 

While Dailey was presenting safety tips to the students, Lingle Volunteer Firefighters Tabitha Lambert and Dakota Vlach crawled around the group on their hands and knees while donning full fire response equipment.

Dailey and Lambert expressed the importance of knowing that firefighters may appear scary to a young child with their full gear on, but they are not to be feared. Lambert and Vlach showed the students what they look like with their gear on and exposed the students to the sights and sounds of the self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) system. 

After the opening discussion, the students were divided into three groups: one group to learn about the fire trucks and hose systems, one group to learn about the ambulance and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and a final group to play a fire safety dice game. 

While learning about the fire trucks and hose systems, students were afforded the opportunity to spray a live hose from the fire truck while the group at the ambulance discussed how to recognize a medical emergency, call for help and provide potentially lifesaving CPR.

The group at the dice game were asked one of six questions: 

1. What do you do if your clothes catch on fire? 

2. What do you do if there is smoke in your house? 

3. What do you do if you smoke detector goes off while you are sleeping? 

4. What do you do if there is an emergency at you or your neighbor’s house? 

5. What do you do if one of your family members isn’t at your meeting spot?

6. What do you do if there is smoke in your house, and you hear a firefighter calling? 

After answering the questions, students were then asked to respond appropriately based on their response. They would check a free-standing door to see if the door handle was hot, then open or leave the door closed. If the door was hot, they had a free-standing window they could open and crawl through.

Additionally, the students showed firefighters they could pick up a phone and call 911 to summon emergency services. 

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) offers the following tips to help prevent fires in your home and community. Many home fires are preventable.

Key fire safety tips

• Watch your cooking – Stay in the kitchen when you are frying, grilling or broiling food. If you must leave, even for a short time, turn off the stove.

• Give space heaters space – Keep fixed and portable space heaters at least three feet from anything that can burn. Turn off heaters when you leave the room or go to sleep.

• Smoke outside – Ask smokers to smoke outside. Have sturdy, deep ashtrays for smokers.

• Keep matches and lighters out of reach – Keep matches and lighters up high, out of the reach of children, preferably in a cabinet with a child lock.

• Inspect electrical cords – Replace cords that are cracked, damaged, have broken plugs, or have loose connections.

• Be careful when using candles – Keep candles at least one foot from anything that can burn. Blow out candles when you leave the room or go to sleep.

• Have a home fire escape plan – Make a home fire escape plan and practice it at least twice a year. 

• Install smoke alarms – Install smoke alarms on every level of your home, inside bedrooms and outside sleeping areas. Interconnect smoke alarms throughout the home. When one sounds, they all sound.

• Test smoke alarms – Test smoke alarms at least once a month and replace batteries once a year or when the alarm “chirps” to tell you the battery is low. Replace any smoke alarm that is more than 10 years old.

• Install sprinklers – If you are building or remodeling your home, install residential fire sprinklers. Sprinklers can contain and may even extinguish a fire in less time than it would take the fire department to arrive.