Events and Activities : \'Get Out Alive:\' Garrison Fun Day July 11th to include fire safety house

On July 11th, Garrison Emergency Services is bringing the Blank Children’s Hospital Fire Safety House to Garrison as part of Garrison Fun day. The Kid’s Health & Safety Fair will be held in the Garrison City Park from 2:00pm– 4:30pm. The Fire Safety House has taught many children and adults in our area how to recognize fire hazards and not to hide, but to get out alive.

Trained volunteers and members of the Garrison Emergency Services will be using the Fire Safety House from Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines to offer hands-on learning to prepare children for the unexpected and frightening experiences of a fire. Similar in appearance to a motor home, the Fire Safety House is a mobile, wheelchair-accessible fire safety education tool which contains the three rooms where fires start most frequently: the kitchen, living room and bedroom. While touring the Fire Safety House children are taught how to crawl under smoke, how to feel a door before opening it, how to use a fire escape ladder, what smoke and carbon monoxide detectors sound like and how to identify kitchen fire hazards.

“We are very excited to be hosting the Fire Safety House in Garrison,” says Amanda Henkle, one of the event organizers. “If only one child in our community is saved from injury or death through having participated in the Fire Safety House training, it will have been worth the effort.”

Nationally each year, approximately 500 children ages 14 and younger die in home fires and another 115,000 are injured from fire/burn related incident. Young children, especially those ages 5 and younger, are at the greatest risk from home fire-related death and injury, with a fire death rate twice the national average. Ninety percent of all fire-related deaths are due to home fires. Home fires can spread rapidly and leave families as little as two minutes to escape after an alarm sounds!

“Working smoke alarms and a home fire escape plan are the most important tools a family can have in protecting their children from fire-related injury and death,” says Henkle. “Although a home fire escape plan may help to reduce these deaths, only 25 percent of households have developed and practiced a plan. In addition, a working smoke alarm is not present in two-thirds of the residential fires in which a child is injured or killed.”

If you have any questions about Fun Day, or if you are interested in providing a booth for the Health & Safety Fair, please contact Amanda at garrison1stresponders@gmail.com.