Many Iowa fire departments will hold open houses, dinners and host firefighter visits with youngsters as part of the annual Iowa Fire Prevention Week. Webster City Fire Chief Chuck Stansfield says his teams will be visiting schools around the county this week.
“Every year, we get out and really just encourage a lot of fire prevention activities,” Stansfield says. “We are going to be speaking to well over 800 students within the community here alone. Also a few of our personnel will be heading out to other towns to assist them as well.” Stanfield says firefighters will spend the week meeting with kids from pre-school age through fourth grade, in addition to talking with parents.
“We teach the basics on how to call 911, how to get out of your house safely,” he says. “We teach about fire safety, talk a lot about some to do’s and some not to do’s. We definitely encourage anybody that doesn’t have a smoke detector to have their caregiver give us a call.” The department is offering free detectors to any residents who need them. There are some 17,000 firefighters in Iowa, and about 15,300 of them are volunteers.
(By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)