The Rankin Inlet Fire Department has a solid track record when it comes to interacting with local youth on the topic of fire prevention.
Rankin Inlet Fire Chief Mark Wyatt said during Fire Prevention Week in October (Oct. 5-11 this year), members of the local department visit students at Leo Ussak Elementary School (kindergarten to Grade 4) to discuss fire prevention and hold a drawing contest for the students.
He said a winner is selected from each class and those students get to participate in the department's Fire Chief for a Day program, which has been running in Rankin since 2016.
"I would think that the program has grown into something the kids look forward to," said Wyatt. "The kids who are selected are pretty happy every year, so I think that's pretty good.
"The kids are great and the people who are involved in helping to teach them all have a pretty good time, as well. It's pretty interactive when we're in the classroom with them. Rather than just sitting there talking to kids, we get them to do things like crawling underneath the smoke and stop, drop and roll.
"Kids that young learn as much from talking to them as they do from actually participating in doing stuff, but they also ask a lot of questions too. From the time they're in kindergarten, straight through to Grade 4 and beyond, they're full of questions.
"They're also very good at going home and letting Mom and Dad know everything they should be doing to promote fire safety and that's also very helpful. We often connect to the parents through the students about things like planning fire drills at home, home escape plans, calling 2525 (the emergency number in Rankin Inlet) and learning their proper home address. A lot of that is pretty important to teach kids early on."
Wyatt said fire prevention is a huge part of being in the fire service.
He said whether you're talking to adults, youth or kids, fire prevention is something that everyone needs to be aware of.
"The more that the kids know, the more questions they'll ask their parents and things get done that way.
"We go through smoke alarms in every presentation we do and, often times, adults will call us to say their smoke alarm is going off, but it's just the batteries beeping and they can learn that from their kids or us. It's all part of fire prevention and one way of preventing fires is being proactive as opposed to reactive in your home.
"We plan our time with the kids every year. There's a lot of stuff we have to order in before Fire Prevention Week and there's handouts for the kids, as well. The kids also find the mascots for Fire Prevention Week (Sparky the Fire Dog and Burny the Firefighting Beaver) to be pretty funny most of the time."
