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Home › Articles › Preschoolers › It Begins at Home

It Begins at Home

Fire Safety for Preschoolers

By Felicia Hodges

Pages:  1  2  3  4  

"They are afraid they'll get in trouble for playing with matches so they hide and never tell anyone that there is a fire," he says. "We find too many kids dead under their beds or in a closet or behind the door of their rooms." To avoid such a catastrophe, remind your child to always tell an adult if they see a fire, even if they accidentally started it.

"They will be a lot better off getting punished than ending up in a hospital or the morgue," he adds.

Firefighter Friends
Although it is difficult to teach unless you actually visit a firehouse or your child's preschool is visited by firefighters during fire prevention week in October, it is necessary to teach your children that firefighters are just people in protective equipment.

"The equipment can look pretty frightening to a child already scared to death by the sights and sounds around him," says Capt. Rich Holdgren, a firefighter in upstate New York. "When we visit the schools, we introduce the kids to the fireman in a protective uniform by having them watch as we put it on a piece at a time. That seems to really re-enforce the fact that there really is a person under all that stuff."

"We try to teach the kids that if you hear us banging or calling out for you to come to us and not run away or say nothing," Wiseman says. "Sometimes they are just so scared that they think they might be safer if they wait until we have gone away." Such an assumption could end up costing the child his life.

Just like stranger alerts and safety information you pass onto your children about drugs and medicines, it is important to keep your child informed about fire safety. Unfortunately, what they don't know can end up hurting them very badly.

"Teach fire safety the same as you would teach your kids their address and telephone number," Wiseman adds. "It is that important."

Parents often need to be educated, too, about fire safety and prevention. Here are several things you can do now to help your family get out safely in the event of a fire in your home: