Between Monday 21 March and Wednesday 23 March members of South East Region community safety team ran some home fire safety sessions as part of a partnership with Dandenong Neighbourhood House.
The centre runs bridging visa/asylum seeker programs to increase the life opportunities for people through the development of self-help and mutual support activities, social interaction and participation.
They also have community kitchens groups who are individuals who come together on a regular basis to socialise and cook affordable and nutritious meals. Community kitchens are for everybody in the community and people from many different walks of life attend.
It was identified that these cooking classes would be an ideal opportunity to talk about fire safety with an emphasis on kitchen fire safety.
The sessions incorporated the use of a mock cooking wok which consisted of imitation flames and attendees were shown how to use a fire blanket and had the opportunity to have a try. Other messages that were covered included the importance of working smoke alarms, how to change the battery as well as not overloading power boards.
Over the three days there were 82 attendees and the response was very positive. The follow-up will be a questionnaire to identify areas where we will be able to supply smoke alarms and the issue of fire blankets to assist in their future safety.
Author: Steven Corrigan