Owen Hayes, a kindergarten scholar at Mebane’s E.M. Yoder Elementary School, turned into prepared when a disaster struck the afternoon of Tuesday, April 30. Thanks in big component to the Fire Prevention software applied by using the Mebane Fire Department in Mebane’s simple faculties, younger Hayes knew exactly what to do while a hearth began to flare up at the stove at his grandmother’s residence.
Hayes is a high-functioning autistic scholar in Beth Courtney’s kindergarten class. The training that he obtained via his instructions at Yoder Elementary – education that he enjoyed repeatedly practicing at home – came in very handy, as he knew to dial 911 and help get his grandmother out of her domestic to safety.
“I sat and cozy in my chair. And suddenly, my granny’s old oven is going smoking,” Hayes said. “The smoke got here interior, and I noticed a flame in there. I referred to 911 from my granny’s. I called the firefighters to help.”
Hayes’ name became acquired via the Mebane Fire Department, who promptly answered with a truck and group to put out the fire. The domestic was saved, and there has been no loss of lifestyles or assets.
“Just the range becomes the casualty, which became best,” Hayes’ mother, Ursula Evans, said. “(His grandmother) had a brand new one on Saturday.”
“It turned into fantastic. When he described (what befell) to me, once I got to my mother’s, it turned into just exquisite,” Hayes’ mom introduced. “I concept, my gosh. He remembered the entirety. He remembered the whole thing. He reminded her approximately calling 911. He said, ‘Grandma, we’ve were given to get out of the residence.’ And he was given her out of the residence. He checked her to make sure she wasn’t on a fireplace so that they didn’t ought to do stop, drop, and roll.”
In appreciation of his brief thinking and response to the schooling, Owen received a “task coin” from the Mebane Fire Department at the side of a bag full of heart-associated items, including an MFD cup and coloring books.
“You convey (the mission coin) into your pocket in case somebody challenges you as to whether or no longer your deal with,” Mebane Fire Chief Bob Louis knowledgeable Hayes. “That coin has a photo on the again of the first truck that was given to the house (in reaction to the fire). We’re very pleased with you at the Fire Department. You hold up the good paintings.”
According to Chief Louis, the Mebane Fire Department commenced the fire prevention application within the primary colleges in Mebane inside the early 1980s.
In the early days of the program, the fire officials depended on neighborhood volunteers. In current years, the program has been organized via contributors of the Fire Department’s Career Staff program, headed up by Fire and Life Safety Educator and Certified Instructor Jennifer Livers.
“Every year in October, we go to each elementary faculty (in Mebane), and they’ve been tremendous to work with,” stated Louis. “We think it’s essential to teach the youngsters – pre-K through 2nd grade.”
Each fall, the Fire Department Career Staff software makes its way to Yoder, Garrett, and South Mebane Elementary Schools with its special trailer, which simulates a stay hearth state of affairs and teaches kindergarten, first, and second graders the right techniques for escaping a hearth and calling for assistance.
“Mrs. Courtney, and all the academics, they realize we’re coming in October,” Rivers stated. “So they want to make certain their class is prepared. Yoder, the academics really work with them. They send notes domestic to parents letting them know they’re doing that, They paintings with them about stop, drop, and roll, hot and cold things, gaining knowledge of your addresses, and speak to numbers. Meeting places and matters.”
“We bought a trailer that simulates a fireplace in a bedroom,” Livers added. “We take them in, and we encourage them to research their addresses and phone numbers. In the bedroom that we’ve got, each child goes in there one at a time, and they lay down on the mattress. We smoke the room up, and the smoke detector is going off. They crawl down from the mattress and crawl to the room beneath the smoke.”
“They experience the door – we do have a heated door, so the door feels warm to the touch, and they recognize no longer to open it. They shy away from the door, and that they cross under the smoke to a window, wherein we’ve got firefighters ready. They open the window, and that they yell, ‘Fire!’ They go out the window to the firemen, and they go out and exercise forestall, drop, and roll.”
“We have a table set up (outdoor the trailer),” Livers continued. “We call that our meeting region at our neighbor’s residence. At that table, we’ve got a telephone. The kids choose the telephone up, and they truly dial 911. It’s a cellphone with a twine. At the alternative stop of the line is another fireman. So they sincerely talk to any individual, and we find out if they know their addresses and get in touch with numbers.”
It doesn’t take too long to speak with Hayes to recognize that the education he acquired from the MFD officers sunk in.
It changed into also glaring within the second of reality when he took action.
“You get within the window. You open your window and escape,” he stated. “Don’t use your doors. Just use the home windows. When your house is on fire, what you’re imagined to do is name 911. Then the firefighters come. You want to train. And don’t neglect. You in no way go to the doorways in your own home. You visit the window. You visit the floor (to forestall, drop, and roll).”
Hayes’ trainer, parents, and pals at Yoder Elementary have been all impressed with and happy with the kindergarten student for the way wherein he answered speedily and appropriately to useful resource his grandmother, store their lives, and shop her domestic.
“I love him so much. He’s a smart boy,” Hayes’ trainer, Beth Courtney, said. “It’s not just the schoolroom teachers that work on (hearth safety). Our strong point instructors, too. Our librarian and PE. We call attention to that because we recognize that retaining them safe is our No. 1 precedence.”
“I was just so proud of him and the reality that I think that he remembered. It caught,” Hayes’ mom brought. “He remembered what to do. And that’s because of the program with the fireplace branch and all the reinforcement from the academics and personnel. And I think it’s super. It’s top-notch.”
“Whenever he found out all of this, he came domestic, and he said, ‘Look at what I found out these days. And he might stop, drop, and roll, added his father, Russell Evans. “He stated, ‘You’ve got to name 911, daddy.’ He went via the complete process. We couldn’t consider that he retained all of that. You guys honestly instilled all that during him. It indicates from what he did.”
