Local firefighters teach SPS students in online resources for Fire Prevention Month
In 2019, nearly 100 Springfield firefighter educators taught 900 age-appropriate safety lessons in 43 elementary schools during October’s Fire Prevention Month, reaching more than 11,126 K-5 students and teachers.
This year, Fire Prevention Month is going virtual, with a series of seven videos that can be shown in the classroom or at home to teach safety lessons to pre-K-fifth-grade students. Produced and illustrated by David Cron at the City of Springfield, these lessons are accessible to students learning in person or virtually, says Fire Chief David Pennington.
“It’s critically important that our students learn how to prevent injuries or fires from happening in their homes,” said Chief Pennington. “Missing a year would be detrimental to those consistent messages about fire safety, and those lessons save lives. We knew we had to change the way we share those messages this year to ensure students still received that important information.”
In each short lesson, local firefighters share the importance of staying safe and secure at home. Firefighter Justine kicked off the series with a lesson on kitchen safety for fourth- and fifth-graders. Cooking fires are the No. 1 cause of home fires in Springfield and grease fires are the leading cause. Other causes of cooking fires in our community include stovetop, improper use during cooking, unattended cooking, appliance malfunction, oven and microwave fires.
“Springfield Fire did fantastic work shifting fire prevention education so we could share it virtually with SPS students,” said J Anderson, executive director of elementary learning. “We are so grateful for this partnership.”
Fire Safety for Students Videos:
- Firefighters Are Our Friends (by Firefighter Tanner, for preK-K)
- Stay Away From Dangerous Things (by Firefighter Geoff, for preK-K)
- Recognizing Home Hazards (by Firefighter Tanner, for first-graders)
- Escape Drills in the Home (by Firefighter Mark, for second-graders)
- How and When to Call 911 (by Firefighter Mark, for third-graders)
- Cooking Safety (by Firefighter Justine, for fourth- and fifth-graders)
- The Fire Triangle (by Firefighter Geoff, for fifth-graders)