A fire safety education program was held at the Mooroopna Recreation Reserve this week, with almost 400 students from local schools attending.
Community Engagement Coordinator Emily Guthrie said presenters from the District 22 Community Safety team made sure the children were engaged and entertained during the program, which focused on home fire safety.
“This is the second year we’ve held the Fire Safe Champions program, named in conjunction with CFA/VFBV State Firefighter Championships,” Emily said.
“The team took advantage of the facilities set up for the Championships, so the children could learn about common home fire safety risks and how to prevent them.
“Some of the things we covered included practical activities like ‘stop, drop and roll’ and crawling low in smoke. We also taught them about creating a home fire safe plan and how to call Triple Zero (000),” Emily said.
“Mooroopna Fire Brigade made its fire truck available to the program so that the kids could spray some water around at the end of each session.
“It was really valuable having the brigade here, as they were paged to an incident during one of the sessions. This gave the children a real-life example of how firefighters respond after someone calls Triple Zero.”
Manager Community Safety for North East Region Darren Viney said programs like this are a valuable resource for schools and CFA alike, because it’s important for children to know the basics and have an idea of what to do and who to call in an emergency.
“The Fire Safe Champions has been a great opportunity for CFA members to engage and educate children face-to-face in the unique environment of the State Championships facility. It provides a memorable experience that reinforces the fire safety messages.” Darren said.
“There’s always a lot of excitement for children to be up close and personal with real firefighters and their fire trucks.”
Darren said the programs have been a fantastic opportunity for CFA to engage with local schools and kindergartens.
“We have been able to build on the success of last year and our sessions were quickly booked out. For some schools this was the first time they have had Term 1 excursions, but they were very keen to do so.
“The Championships also bring so many people to the area, particularly considering both the Rural and Urban events are here.”
The Urban Junior Championships were held at the Mooroopna Recreation Reserve last weekend, while the Urban Senior events, and both the Rural Senior and Rural Junior competitions will begin this Saturday.