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Fire Marshal Rick Chisum visits with students from Epic Charter Wednesday at the Okmulgee Library.
OFD to visit county schools to
stress importance of fire safety
By JESSIE BRYDGES
Times Staff Writer
National Fire Prevention
Week is Oct. 7-13. This year’s
FPW campaign, “Look.
Listen. Learn. Be aware. Fire
can happen anywhere,” is
working to educate people
about three basic but neces-
sary steps to take to reduce
the likelihood of having a fire
or being hurt:
LOOK - Look for places fire
could start. Take a good look
around your home. Identify
potential fire hazards and
take care of them.
LISTEN - Listen for the
sound of the smoke
alarm. You could have only
minutes to escape safely once
the smoke alarm sounds. Go
to your outside meeting
place, which should be a safe
distance from the home and
where everyone should know
to meet.
A twist on a favorite festival
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Proprietàdi OPS News Tracker e membri di Oklahoma Press Association.
In observation of Fire
Prevention Week, the
Okmulgee Times and
local sponsors are
offering some safety
tips that will be printed
in Wednesday’s edition.
Check out
the sponsor
ads marked
with the spe-
cial symbol:
LEARN - Learn two ways
out of every room and make
sure all doors and windows
leading outside open easily
and are free of clutter.
As part of the fire safety
training, Okmulgee Fire
Marshal Rick Chisum and
several firefighters are travel-
ing to various schools and
daycares and talking to the
children about fire safety.
Chisum was at the
Okmulgee Public Library
Wednesday to meet with stu-
dents from the Epic Charter
online school.
While there, he spoke to
the students about many
aspects of fire safety includ-
ing having a safety plan and
walking them through what
to do in case they are awoken
by a smoke detector.
“If you wake up to the
noise of a smoke alarm you're
going to want to jump up and
go see whats going on, but
you should not do that,”
Chisum said. “If you jump up
you may get into the smoke
and that will make you choke
and make your eyes water
which will make it hard to
get out of the house.”
All homes should have sev-
eral smoke detectors
throughout the home and all
should be set either on the
ceiling or as high on the wall
as possible.
“If you have a smoke
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detector and its sitting on,
say, a table or something.
Then the smoke has to build
up to the point that it reaches
the low lying smoke detec-
tor,” Chisum said.
Chisum walked the stu-
dents through staying low to
the ground in case of fire and
gave advice on how to get
out of both houses and apart-
ments safely in the case of a
fire. He also stressed the
importance of both a meeting
hub and an escape plan.
All homes need a family
escape plan and a well
OSUIT’s
known central hub that all
family members know of. A
light pole or tree could all
Encoun
work as a central hub. It is
also recommended that fami-
lies practice their escape plan
during daytime and night
showcase
twice a year.
All members of the family
should also know how to
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escape from their room even
if the door is inaccessible.
Chisum also stressed the
Get Out and Stay Out rule.
Once you have gotten out of
the house never go back in
for family members or pets.
While most of the advice
was warmly accepted by the
students, Chisum ‘ruffled
some feathers ‘with the state-
ment that belongings and
even pets can be replaced,
but your own life cannot.
The Epic Charter students
wasted no time in informing
the firefighters of all the pets
they had and have ever
owned.
The National Fire
Prevention Association
(NFPA) statistics show that
the number of U.S. home
fires has been steadily declin-
ing over the past few
decades. However, the death
rate per 1000 home fires that
are reported to fire depart-
ments was 10 percent higher
in 2016 than in 1980.
Since 1922, the NFPA has
sponsored the public obser-
vance of Fire Prevention
Week.
Fire Prevention Week is
observed each year during
the week of October 9th in
commemoration of the Great
Chicago Fire, which began on
October 8, 1871, and caused
devastating damage.
The wide swept fire killed
more than 250 people, left
100,000 homeless, destroyed
more than 17,400 structures,
and burned more than 2,000
acres of land.
In 1925, President Calvin
Coolidge proclaimed Fire
Prevention Week a national
observance, making it the
longest-running public health
observance in our country.
During Fire Prevention
Week, children, adults, and
teachers learn how to stay
safe in case of a fire and fire-
fighters provide lifesaving
public education in an effort
to drastically decrease casu-
alties caused by fires.
“These numbers show that
while we’ve made significant
progress in teaching people
Proprietàdi OPS News Tracker e membri di Oklahoma Press Association.
how to prevent fires from
happening, there’s still much
more work to do in terms of
educating the public about
how to protect themselves in
the event of one,” NFPA’s vice
president of Outreach and
Advocacy, Lorraine Carli said.
“This is particularly critical
given the increased speed at
which today’s home fires
grow and spread.”
The Okmulgee Fire
Department will be going to
all the schools in the district
including Stonebridge and
daycare's as part of fire pre-
vention week.
Monday, Oct. 8 – Primary
PK/ 1st at 8:45 a.m. and
Primary 2nd/ 4th at 1:15
p.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 9 –
Stonebridge PK / 2nd at 1
p.m.
Wednesday, Oct. 10 –
Morris Elementary at 8 a.m. Students from Epic Charter get a tour of a and daycare centers next week in obser-
and UCAP Headstart at 10 rig from the Okmulgee Fire Department. vance of Fire Prevention Week.
a.m. The OFD will be visiting county schools (Jessie Brydges/Times Staff)
Thursday, Oct. 11 – Twin
Hills PK/ 2nd at 10 a.m. and
CN Headstart at 1 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 12 – OSUIT Pregnant and Parenting HLP Seminar is Oct. 12
Daycare at 9 a.m.
Monday, Oct. 15 – Beggs Pregnant and/or parenting 14-24 are invited to a full-day resources to help them grow
Elementary at 1:30 p.m. youth and young adults ages seminar and resource fair as parents and young profes-
designed specifically for sionals or students