Did you know a typical house fire doubles in size every minute, according to Discover Magazine? Like most statistics, that's a scary thought.
Since I've been on a rare streak lately with crossing things off my insane To-Do List, I decided to go with the feelin' and get my planned lesson on Fire Safety taken care of.
Because every good thing begins with a book, we started by reading "No Dragons for Tea" by Jean E. Pendziwol, a picture book about fire safety, and since I we can't get enough of books that rhyme, this one was perfect for me the kids. Plus, it was funny.
We trudged up to their rooms and I had them lie in their beds and pretend to be asleep as we rehearsed and varied our escape routes by trying on different scenarios (What if the door is hot? Don't open it & go out the window. What if there's smoke in your room? Crawl on your hands and knees or on your belly if there's lots of smoke. Do you leave your door open or closed when you leave your room? Closed, to keep the fire from spreading.)- I'll have you know I was quite the entertaining beeping smoke detector, if I do say so myself. The more you practice- you should be serious without scaring them- the easier it'll be for them to think clearly in an emergency.
We've added a 2nd-story fire safety ladder to our shopping list, along with at least one more fire extinguisher. As soon as it comes in, I plan to teach the kids how to use it. That should be fun, as I enjoy heights as much as a trip to the dentist- no offense Dr.W. Anyway, about these ladders I'll be climbing, they're advertised as being lightweight enough for a child to use on their own, so we'll see. SIDE NOTE: Fire extinguishers are generally no more than $40 so if your one-income budget is tight like ours, save those dollars up and work it into your shopping budget sooner rather than later. It really could save your life.
We have made sure everyone knows where to meet in case we have to get out on our own and the kids know how to safely cross the street (not a busy one) if the fire is too hot to safely stand in our planned meeting spot. They understand that they are not to go back into house for any reason, even if their lovey is trapped inside. I've stressed to them that we can always get more toys & loveys and they seem to really get it. I'm tremendously proud that they passed this part of the test scenario I gave them. We're talking with flying colors.
We are scheduling in a second trip to tour the local firehouse soon just for kicks to round out the lesson. The last time we dropped in for a visit- they're generally cool with that- we were lucky enough to see an alarm in action. It was jaw-dropping to see those boys get up and go in less than thirty seconds and I was too thrilled that the kids got to see how it really goes down behind the scenes. I chuckled as I thought about how much the firefighters would've had to adjust their timetable had my notoriously slow-moving children been needed on that truck. Yikes for the people waiting on the other end.
In my next post, I'll include some tips for parents that I hope will help you prepare and protect your family.
For now, some links:
National Fire Protection Agency offers assessments in case of fire emergencies
Masha Allah. We took the fire safety lessons long time ago and it's time now to refresh our memories. Thanks for the tip on Fire extinguisher. Hope the girls enjoyed their trip to the fire station.
ReplyDeleteYes, they did, thank you so much! Glad you could benefit from the refresher, Alhamdullilah.
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