Fire District educates island students
The Matlacha / Pine Island Fire Con-trol District had a busy Fire Prevention Week. Crews visited primary grades at Pine Island Elemen-tary School and hosted intermediate grades at the fire house.
“This is Fire Prevention Week,” Fire Inspector Christi Kulwicki said. “Fire Prevention Week originally came out of the Great Chicago Fire and for many years fire departments have used the anniversary as a way to keep the public informed about the importance of fire prevention. Today we’re educating our Pine Island Elementary 3rd and 4th grade students at the fire house.”
Tuesday and Wednesday members of the department visited Pine Island Elementary for the Kindergarteners, 1st and 2nd graders. Thursday the 3rd and 4th graders visited the fire house.
“Tomorrow (Friday), the 5th graders will be here,” Kulwicki said. “When were finished we’ll have worked with about 300 students.
“We reviewed with the students the important information every child should know such as address, phone number, etc.” Kulwicki said. “We also have the ‘smoke room.’ It’s important to make children familiar with being unable to see that way if they ever find themselves in such a situation, they will be able to handle it better. We will also review the stop-drop-and-roll procedure. By now these students (4th grade) have been through this a few times and the students are familiar with the procedure.”
Winn-Dixie donated brown paper bags for the students to decorate.
“Each student colors a paper bag however they want,” Kulwicki said. “Then the bags will be returned to Winn-Dixie to be used for groceries and the customers take them home. It’s a public awareness thing.”
The Fire Prevention Educational theme for 2016 is “Hear the Beep where you Sleep.”
“This year we are stressing the importance of having working smoke alarms in the students’ homes,” Chief Benjamin Mickuleit said. “According to the NFPA, half of home fire deaths result from fires reported at night between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. when most people are asleep. Home smoke alarms can alert people to a fire before it spreads, giving everyone enough time to get out. Smoke alarms should be replaced every 10 years.”
“Once we’re finished with all of the educational information, it’s time for some fun,” Kulwicki said. “We finish up with the water-battles where students team up against each other. They get so wet but they have so much fun.”
If any residents have questions or concerns with their smoke alarms, please contact the fire department at 239-283-0030 during regular business hours Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.