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Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory begins its fire safety public education program at Warsaw Community Schools’ elementaries when students are in kindergarten.
By the time students hit fifth grade, they’re doing fire education projects. At sixth grade, they’re asked to write an essay. The big prize for the winning project and essay is that the winning fifth-grader and sixth-grader get to be Firefighters of the Day.
Jeremy Williams, WWFT fire marshal, said the program started in 2016.
“The program actually starts in kindergarten. Everything’s age specific. All the way up through first grade, second grade, third grade, we take our Save A Life smoke trailer to the school. We do a ‘get out through the windows,’ ‘get low, stay low’ and all that,” he explained. “Fourth has their own program. Once you get to fifth, that’s where the Firefighter of the Day program kicks in.”
At every elementary school in the Warsaw School Corporation - including Leesburg, Claypool and Jefferson, though they aren’t in the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory - the fifth-graders are asked to create a project.
“We go in and we say, ‘We’ve had you since kindergarten. Now is your time to teach us something about fire safety.’ We leave it pretty much open - anything fire-safety related. Anything from get out, stay out; get low under smoke; smoke detector placement at home; cooking safety,” Williams said.
The sixth-graders are asked to write an essay based on the title “What a Firefighter Means to Me.” Again, it’s pretty much left open and the students can handwrite it or type it. Students relate the essay back to the firefighters being in their school since kindergarten.
“It’s kind of like a grand finale for them,” he said.
The fifth-graders and sixth-graders are given a couple weeks to finish their projects and essays. The firefighters will then read all the essays and look at all the projects and pick their favorite ones.
One fifth-grader and one sixth-grader at each of the elementary schools wins and gets to be the Firefighter of the Day a couple weeks later after their permission slips are turned in.
“We’ll come in and we’ll pick them up in a fire truck. Our crews will go out, about right after (school) drop-off, pick them up. Usually take a picture out there with some office staff and they make a big deal out of it. It’s a lot of fun,” Williams explained.
The winning students are taken to the fire station and get to be the Firefighter of the Day.
“Anything we do, they do. We give them tours of the station. We take them out to the training center, let them run through a lot of the props we have out there. We set up the ladder truck, let them climb up the ladder truck and get a good aerial view from our station 13 on Center Street. That’s usually always a highlight,” Williams stated.
The winning students get to pick lunch - whether that’s the firefighters cooking something for them or going out to eat. The firefighters pick up the tab for the lunch.
The kids get to try on clean, junior sets of firefighter gear. The JAWS of Life is brought out for the kids to see.
“Just pretty much let them get their hands on anything that we think we do,” he said. “If we go on runs, we let them go on the trucks on runs with us. They’ve got to stay in the truck when we get on scene and watch from the window.”
The sirens blaring and watching a run from inside the truck is usually a highlight for the kids, Williams said.
The firefighters enjoy the kids being there for the day as much as the kids like being a Firefighter of the Day.
“Most of them do for the most part, especially for the ones with kids. They enjoy ... it brings them back to them being a kid,” Williams said.
The fire education program started about 10 years ago when Lt. Max Kinsey went to Fort Wayne and talked to Dave Meadows, who’s in charge of the Safety Village aspect of the Fort Wayne Fire Department. Kinsey brought back a template for the fire safety pubic education program for kindergarteners to sixth-graders. Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory tweaked it a bit to make it theirs, adding the Firefighter of the Day. The first Firefighter of the Day was during the 2016 school year.
Not only do the kids learn about fire safety, Williams said they really enjoy. The kids who get to be the Firefighters of the Day also get to be out of school for a day, too.
“For the most part, it’s a busy day. From 9:15 in the morning, we pick them up. We usually have them back by 3:30 before the final bell. It’s all day,” he stated.
The program really doesn’t cost the fire department anything and the firefighters pay for the kids’ lunches.
So far this school year, Williams said three schools have already had their Firefighters of the Day. They’re spread out so there’s a different school each month.
As for the essays, Williams said one can tell some of the sixth-graders really put some thought into them.
“There’s a lot of heartfelt ones, which is really cool. Sometimes it comes from kids that have had structure fires, or parents that have been in car accidents. Those are the ones that we really get the heartfelt ones from, that really have been touched by our services,” he explained.
As for the fifth-grade projects, he said they’ve seen some really cool ones, ranging from poster boards to Lego sets to slideshows and videos. The only thing the students are asked not to use are baked goods because they might go bad while sitting in the classroom.
