Firefighters demo SAFE House at Madison Elementary School

Will a child know how to safely escape from a house fire? To demonstrate proper actions, firefighters with Madison Fire and Rescue Department informed students at Madison Elementary School with their SAFE House.

SAFE House (Photo courtesy of Madison Fire and Rescue Department)

Firefighters ‘trailered’ the SAFE House from Fire House No. 1 to the 17 College Street campus for half-day visits on Oct. 16 and 18.

“SAFE House is used to teach fire safety to kids from pre-K to sixth grade,” Stacy Haraway, captain of community outreach, said. The mobile unit “teaches students how smoke rises to the ceiling and how they need to crawl out of their house if it catches on fire.”

Money donated to SAFE House is used to buy fire safety materials, like coloring books, pencils and fire helmets, that the firefighters give to the children when they teach fire safety in Madison City Schools.

The current SAFE House was purchased in 2009 with a Fire Prevention and Safety grant from the Department of Homeland Security. “Before this trailer, we used one that we bought with donations in the mid-1990s,” Haraway said.

Haraway and other Madison firefighters demonstrate how smoke rises to the ceiling. “The kids know to stay low and crawl out of their house,” he said. “SAFE House also has a live burn room. We can start a fire and show how a sprinkler system will put the fire out.”

Set up like a kitchen, the main room can show fire safety around a hot stove, Haraway said.

After exiting the house, the students learn to go to their family meeting place, usually a neighbor’s house. “Never go back inside the house,” Haraway said. “We teach them to talk to their parents about an escape plan and know two ways out of every room in their house.”

Everyone in the family needs to go to the same meeting place outside. “We teach ‘Stop, Drop and Roll’ if their clothes are on fire,” he said, “and call 911 for all emergencies.”

Firefighters transports the SAFE House to all elementary schools in Madison for students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade.

Resident can stop by for safety material at Fire Station No. 1, 101 Mill Road. For more information, 256-464-8421.