NANTICOKE, LUZERNE COUNTY — It’s fire prevention week, where the importance of smoke alarms are being highlighted by firefighters across the nation and locally.
Parked outside the Nanticoke Area Education Complex is a house on wheels, but the interior is all about fire safety.
“We needed to do something to start educating the community on the importance of smoke alarms in the home,” said Chief Mark Boncal, Nanticoke City Fire Department.
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This week marks National Fire Prevention Week. Building an entire program around it since 1986 the Nanticoke City Fire Department has been educating students and the local community through its ‘fire safety house.’
“For every single year, we love to see when the kids come in from daycares and pre-kindergarten all the way up to fifth grade, you can definitely tell that they’re retaining the information,” said Chandler Prymowicz, firefighter, Nanticoke City Fire Department.
Students get to enter the home and run into scenarios that could possibly lead to a tragedy.
“We have a pot on the stove that we can show what happens if there’s a fire on the stove. We also have stuff that’s very common like aluminum foil in a microwave,” said Prymowicz.
In the upstairs bedroom of the fire safety house, students get to feel a real-life scenario of being inside a home during a fire emergency.
“At times it tends to make them a little nervous once we do get some smoke in here, but that’s why I’m here to kind of make sure they go through it and keep their calm. This way in the event of a real emergency or whatever, maybe they’ll remember the experience they had in here,” said Andy Kopco, firefighter, Nanticoke City Fire Department.
Part of the program includes emergency exits, which seem to be the favorite of many.
“My favorite scenario is going down the ladder,” said Hunter Grzymski, 5th grader, Nanticoke Area Middle School.
“The ladder on the side of the thing,” said Calleigh Krushinski, 5th grader, Nanticoke Area Middle School.
Learning about what smoke detectors do and the importance of checking them to make sure they work is a key topic.
“That they detect the fire in the house.” said Krushinski.
“Because they help people,” said Everly Hoffman, Nanticoke Area School District.
But passion for the underlying message of safety in the home is the biggest takeaway for both students and firefighters.
“The best part about it is I get to teach them,” said Jimmy Hoffman, firefighter, Nanticoke City Fire Department “just to know what to do when something happens.”
“Myself and the rest of the firefighters, we did this as a job and we love doing it so it’s great to see the kids loving it too,” said Prymowicz.
Fire prevention week runs through Saturday. You can look for tips on how you can check to make sure your home is safe at NFPA Fire Prevention Week (FPW).
