`Learn not to burn’ lesson at Hermon> Children attend fire safety open house

HERMON — Practice makes perfect. At least that’s what firefighters in Hermon were hoping Saturday morning as they used the Learn Not to Burn Trailer to show children how to escape from a burning building.

Youngsters rehearsed sliding out of bed, crawling to an escape route and then determining the safest way to exit from the 16-foot trailer which was pumped full of nontoxic smoke to simulate a house on fire.

By third grade, a child should have two escape routines down pat, according to Hermon Fire Chief Larry Willis. “Kids need to be able to save their own lives,” he said.

The trailer “provides real good training for them,” Willis said. “They remember the exiting techniques because they actually do them.”

The demonstration was one of the activities held during the Hermon Fire Department’s first open house. Firefighters planned the event to “educate the community in fire safety and prevention techniques, and to show them who we are and what we do,” said Willis.

Meanwhile, each youngster who entered the trailer, which contained a kitchen and a bedroom separated by a door, was instructed to lie on the bed and wait for the smoke alarm to sound before beginning the pretend escape.

Willis explained to children that because smoke rises, they should always keep their heads low. The fire chief also told the children to touch the doorknob and the door before opening it. A door that’s cool means it’s safe to open, while a hot door means that the fire has spread to the next room and that it must be kept closed, Willis said. Climbing out the window would be the next alternative, he told them.

The fire chief advised the children to break the entire window with a chair or a drawer, climb out feet first, hang down and then drop.

Bradley McCluskey, 5, who participated in the training session with his mother, Linda, was concerned that he hadn’t followed procedure.

“I didn’t touch the door,” the Hermon boy admitted. “My mom did instead.”

“That’s OK!” Willis assured him. “People can travel together while they escape from a fire.”

Joe Gagne, 6, of Hermon, who also used the trailer door to escape, pronounced the drill a little scary. “I shivered a little,” he told onlookers.

Kayla Bentley, 6, of Carmel received appreciative applause after she pretended that the door was too hot to open and instead used the window to escape.

Later, the crisp, fall air was filled with the sounds of excited children as they climbed in and out of the Fire Department’s shiny, new pumper.

Willis showed parents a video depicting the two-minute span it takes for a smoldering chair to cause a room to become an inferno.

The fire chief told them that smoke detectors should be placed in hallways and on each level and each bedroom in the house.

The Hermon Fire Department, along with other area departments and health agencies, recently formed a smoke detector give-away program.

The goal of Project DAL — Detectors are Lifesavers — is to raise $25,000 which will be used to purchase 2,500 smoke detectors with long-life batteries and educational materials.

Willis also advised parents to designate a place near the house at which all family members should meet if they have escaped from a burning house. The spot should be visible to firefighters, Willis said, so that they can determine whether to begin rescue techniques or to concentrate on saving the house.

Willis told residents never to pour water on a cooking fire. Instead, slide a lid over the pan, turn off the burner and leave the pan on the stove. If a fire starts in the oven, close the oven door and turn off the heat source, he said.

Later, Sue DeCoste of Hermon said she was glad she had attended the open house.

“I learned that [the safety techniques] I had been using were right,” said the mother of two happily.

Dawn Fernandez of Hermon said the information her three young sons received at the open house “reinforces the [fire prevention information] they get at school.”

“They also like to see what their dad does,” added Fernandez, whose husband, Mario, is a firefighter in the town.