Volunteer members of the Sayville Fire Department were very busy teaching fire prevention and household safety from the end of September until the beginning of November. Every year resources are gathered to meet the requests for fire prevention training for preschools and elementary schools in Sayville. Training for groups of all sizes was offered at the firehouse or the school.

Depending on the age group and time constraints for these sessions, the children had an opportunity to sit in the trucks and shoot water. They also got down to more serious business and saw what it’s like when a fully geared firefighter does a search for a person so that they are not fearful of scary sights and sounds in the event of an emergency. Some of the safety issues taught include smoke detectors, plan of escape, how to “stop, drop and roll”, to “stay low and go”, how to call 911 and to never hide.

Sayville FD Fire Prevention Instructors in front of Fire Safety House
from left to right: Bobby Smith, 1st Asst. Chief Larry Sesso, Ex-Chief Charlie Oelkers, Wendy Liu (not pictured: Ex-Chief/Commissioner Don Corkery and Nick Campson)
 

For those local children who came to the firehouse, they had a special opportunity to go through a trailer made just for them for the purpose of fire prevention outreach. Children were given safety talks specific to each of the three rooms in the trailer…the kitchen, family room and bedroom. This trailer also has the ability to simulate a smoky condition on both levels, where children are taught to feel the door before they open it and to “stay low and go”. Lots of children and parents were also able to go through training in this special trailer at the Spooky Walk and the AppleFest at the Grange.

In addition, Sayville held it’s Annual Fire Prevention Open House, where families could receive training in the trailer, climb on the trucks, ask questions of the firefighters and pick up important fire and household safety material.

The Sayville Fire Department volunteers hundreds of hours each year to teaching fire prevention to the community. They feel that their aggressive community outreach efforts have a direct impact on increased fire safety in Sayville and look forward to another full calendar of fire prevention training in the fall of 2007.