Children taught fire safety in Presque Isle simulation

PRESQUE ISLE – The trailer housing the Presque Isle Fire Department’s Family Fire Safety House was quiet Saturday.

A shiny soup pot rested atop a pristine stove, and the soft hue from a nearby television screen brightened the quaint living room.

But inside the back bedroom was something ominous: Inside a trash can next to a bed, a dull synthetic flame threatened to leap out onto the rug.

Although the fire was a fake, the children who were sitting inside the safety house were asked to pretend that the scene was real. The purpose, said Presque Isle Fire Chief Jim Krysiak, was so that officials could teach children how they should respond if they were ever faced with such a situation.

The 35-foot-long trailer was on display for only the second time at the Presque Isle Kiwanis Club’s 22nd annual Home, Garden and Recreation Show over the weekend. Essentially a classroom on wheels, the home was a popular attraction for both children and adults.

The unit was purchased with a $54,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Presque Isle’s Rotary and Kiwanis clubs paid the local share of the grant, $5,400, and McCluskey’s RV Center in Presque Isle donated the equipment to haul the trailer.

The unit simulates the interior of a home. It quickly fills with fake smoke to show participants what can happen when a fire breaks out. Inside the trailer, Krysiak taught the children how to crawl on their knees in a smoke-filled room, warning them to refrain from opening hot doors, and directing them to test their smoke detectors once per month.

“We want everyone, if there is a fire, to get out and to get out safely,” Krysiak said.

A heater behind a door in the trailer actually made it warm, so that the children chose a second option, exiting through a window. Outside that window, fire Lt. Dave Lovley waited to help them down.

“This is an important teaching tool,” he said during a break in the action. “It teaches the kids fire safety, and they really seem to like it.”

The last training step ends after the children run to a nearby telephone and practice dialing 911. The phone is programmed to ring inside the camper, where a dispatcher prods the necessary information out of the caller.

Monticello resident Jennifer Johnston agreed Saturday that the safety home was beneficial. She had watched her 6-year-old son, Dylan, go through the home.

“It’s great,” she said, adding that she thought that the simulator taught her son more about fire safety than he could learn in a classroom.

Briana Devoe, who went through the unit with her father, Billy Thibodeau, also said she liked the experience. She said she is already well versed in fire safety, however, as she has her own teacher at home.

“I knew all of that stuff,” the 8-year-old said, pointing to her father, who also is a Presque Isle firefighter.

Krysiak said that more that 200 people visited the safety house at the recent Agri-Business Trade Fair in Presque Isle.

The safety house is slated to appear in shows at Houlton and Madawaska later this spring.