D’Iberville Fire Fighters Visit Kindergarden Class
William Wittmer helps students into the fire truck
D’Iberville Firefighter William Wittmer helps kindergardeners from D’Iberville Elementary School onto a fire truck, where they sat in the firefighter’s seats and were shown fire-fighting equipment. The D’Iberville Fire Department conducts educational visits to schools and clubs about a dozen times a year. Chief Gerald Smith said that the department tries to teach fire prevention and fire safety as often as they can, starting with children as young as 3 or 4 and many clubs and groups take field trips to the fire station.
Chris Holland shows a mask to students
Firefighters teach the importance of fire safety and such procedures as Stop, Drop and Roll. They also teach a program called “Edith,” which stands for: Exit Drills In The Home and encourages children to ask their parents to conduct fire drills at home.
Though it is sometimes difficult to maintain the attention of young children, Smith said the firefighters enjoy interacting with them and the children, who often dream of being firefighters when they grow up, are usually happy to see them.
These education visits give firefighters a change of pace outside of their usual routine and they are rewarded when they see that they’ve reached children and the safety lessons have sunk in. According to Smith, you know when you’ve reached some of the children when they start answering other student’s questions to the firefighters. That’s when you know the important lessons have sunk in, lessons that could one day save lives.
