Fire Safety & Burn Prevention

1. Explain to children that “firefighters are helpers in the community. This means that even though firefighters are strangers, you can trust firefighters because they are community helpers. Their job is to help keep you, your family, and your friends safe.”

2. Explain to children what is an emergency, and what is not an emergency. Explain to children that
“emergencies are when a fire alarm or smoke alarm goes off, or if someone is really sick or hurt. For example, getting a paper cut or breaking your favourite toy is not an emergency. Calling 911 when there is not an emergency can mean that people who have a real emergency might not get the help they need.”

a. Review the "What is an Emergency?" slides with the class and ask them to identify what is, and what isn't, an emergency.
b. As you present the slides, explain to the students why each situation is or is not an emergency.

i. If students remain confused about why something is or is not an emergency, explain to them again that emergencies are only when someone is in serious danger, for example if there is a fire, or if they are really hurt or sick. Ask students to share examples and write them down on a white board / SMART board.

3. Roleplay with students about what to do if they need to call 9-1-1. Explain to children that “they will need to tell the fire department the kind of emergency, their name, where they live, and the phone number that they are using to call the fire department.” It is important to stay on the call until the fire department hangs up.”

a. Have children fill in the following information on a piece of paper:

i. The type of emergency they are reporting (for the purpose of the roleplay exercise, it may be simple to use a fire as the type of emergency),

ii. Their name,

iii. Their address, and

iv. Their phone number

b. Have children use the toy phone and pretend to phone 9-1-1 to report a fire. Pretend to be the local fire department for the roleplay, and have children share the information they have written down. Reinforce that the fire department must be the one to end the call. Reinforce to students that in real life, you should never phone 9-1-1 for fun or practice. Phoning 9-1-1 if there is not an emergency takes help away from the people who need it, and they could get hurt.

4. Show the smoke alarm to the students (or show a picture like the one below), and explain that "smoke alarms help us keep us safe. When a smoke alarm goes off, it will make a loud, continuous noise. This noise means that there may be a fire. Even if you cannot see a fire, it could still be dangerous, and that it is important to exit the building".

a. Have students come together on a rug or at one end of the classroom, and ask the class to pretend that the rug is their home.
b. At the other end of the classroom, find an object and agree to make that object your safe meeting place (e.g., this could be a poster, a desk, a recycling bin, etc).
c. Turn on the smoke alarm (or play sound from a video)
d. Have the class exit their ‘home’ calmly, walking, not pushing or running and meet at their safe meeting space across the room. Have students wait at their meeting place until the smoke alarm stops.
e. Once the alarm has stopped, let the class know that it is okay to go back inside their ‘home’ once a trusted adult or firefighter says that it is safe. Have the class return to their ‘home’, and walk back to the rug.

5. Explain to children that if their clothes or hair ever catches fire they should Stop, Drop, Cover, and Roll. If your clothes are on fire, stop where you are, drop to the ground, cover your face with your hands and extend your legs straight out, then roll back and forth to put out the flames. If the flames come back do the same things until the fire does not come back. Running around in a panic is likely to cause bodily harm and potentially spread the fire. Use this video to present a Stop, Drop and Roll to the class.

a. Get the students to stand (or a few to demonstrate if you do not have room)
b. Pretend their clothes have just caught on fire and ask them what they should do?

i. Stop, Drop, Cover, and Roll!

c. Go through each step at a time and make sure students are performing it correctly.

i. The hands should be on the face and the legs extended as they are rolling

d. Re-emphasise the importance of Stop, Drop, Cover, and Roll and how it could prevent injury and save their life.

6. Demonstrate to students that “there are objects that are safe to touch, objects that can sometimes be hot, and objects that are always hot and not safe to touch.”

a. Fill one clear bottle with cold water, and the other clear bottle with warm water (do not use hot or boiling water so as to reduce the risk of scalds). Make sure to place lids on the water bottles.
b. Display the water bottles to the students and ask the class to guess which bottle is warm and which bottle is cold. Record the student’s votes for which bottle is warm and which bottle is cold.
c. After each child has cast their vote, invite the class to touch the two water bottles. Explain to students that “Some things can be hot without you knowing, it is important to ask an adult to help you decide if something is safe to touch or not.”
d. Load and present the ‘Hot or Not’ Activity slides.
e. A description of the Activity can be found at the end of this chapter. For some of the images in the ‘Sometimes Hot’ category, prompt students to recall the water bottle exercise, and to remember that objects can be hot even if they do not look hot.
OR
Use the National Fire Protection Association video explaining these concepts and with questions similar to the slides.
f. Explain to students that if they ever find a lighter or matches they should tell an adult because they are not toys and can result in burns or injuries.

“Hot or Not” Activity

Present the ‘Hot or Not’ Activity slides to the class. Explain to students that there are objects around us that are always cold, things that can be hot, and things that are always hot. These objects can be found inside the home, and outside the home. Go through the slide presentation, and show each picture to the students. Ask them if this object is something that is always cool and safe to touch, something that can get hot, or something that is always hot. With the class, sort each picture in the slides into the corresponding section of the Venn Diagram. For example, a picture of a lit match will go in the ‘always hot’ section, a picture of a clothing iron will go in the ‘sometimes hot’ section, and an ice cube will go in the ‘always cold’ section.

List of objects in slides:

• • Ice Cubes - Always Cold
  • Stove Top - Sometimes Hot
  • Campfire - Always Hot
  • Ice Cream - Always Cold
  • Iron - Sometimes Hot
  • Match - Always Hot
  • Snowman - Always Cold
  • Heater - Sometimes Hot
  • Lighter - Always Hot