News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Both officials and participants say year one of the Jackson County Fire Safety House has gone well.
The Counsel purchased a trailer last fall and remodeled it to look like a real home. Jackson County Central Fire Department Chief Jeffrey Conn said using the trailer, they have been able to travel to schools and provide children with better fire safety education.
“We teach the kids how to properly put a pan on the stove, how to turn the handles, how to open the stove so they don’t get burned from the steam coming out of it, how to put out a stove fire if they were to have one,” Conn said. “The trailer also has a smoke simulator so that we can teach the kids to crawl below the smoke, how to find an exit, how to feel heat, if a door is hot to not open it in case there is fire on the other side of it. ”
Conn said it is the hands-on experiences that are most beneficial to the kids. Conn said the feedback has been remarkable from parents, teachers and kids, and that he hopes the training will help in future emergencies as well as make kids more familiar with their local EMS personnel.
“We also take some of the fire trucks, and ambulances, and the sheriffs cars and on top of teaching them it gets them familiar with emergency services personnel,” Conn said. “Smaller children can see a face and put with an emergency service, and not be scared if we were to come to them in an emergency.”
Conn said this is first time they had a service of this nature in Jackson County.
