Countywide : Learning the Ins, Outs of Fire Safety

Staying low to the ground, 3-year-old Sloan Robinson crawled toward Costa Mesa Firefighter Rene Carrera.

“Help, here I am,” the toddler repeatedly yelled.

Sloan was one of about 25 preschoolers who participated this week in an hourlong class called “The Firefighter Is Your Friend,” part of a three-part safety series that teaches safety skills to children ages 3 to 5.

Other classes in the free series are “Get Low and Go,” which teaches how to escape a fire, and “Earthquake Readiness,” which uses real earthquake sounds to teach children to “duck and cover.”

All three classes, which are designed to be fun and non-threatening, are presented by the Costa Mesa Fire Department through the city’s Community Recreation Program. Residents of other cities are welcome to enroll at no charge.

In this week’s class, children toured the Fire Department, saw a firetruck, listened to sounds of firefighting equipment and met with firefighters dressed in full garb.

The series is the brainchild of fire protection analyst Suzanne Freeman, who also designed latchkey and baby-sitting classes for children.

Freeman said she created “Firefighter is Your Friend” to familiarize children with the sights and sounds that accompany real fires.

“Most children get really scared,” she said. “The firefighter dressed in all that gear looks very threatening,” and the sound of self-contained breathing apparatus is “frightening,” she said. “This class removes some of that fear.”

Freeman said that with the exception of adults over 70, children under the age of 5 are twice as likely to die in fires than any other age group.

Burns on small children are usually more serious, because they cover a larger percentage of the body, she added.

The idea, said Freeman, is to teach children how to react safely if there is a fire.

“If we can just get them out and exiting--that’s our whole intent,” she said. “If they’re too small to get out a window, we tell them to wait by that window, and as soon as they see a firefighter, crawl right to that firefighter. We could probably cut the mortality rate in half if children were prepared.”

And by teaching the children, the information reaches parents, she said.

“I could never get this many adults in a fire-and-safety class, because adults don’t think there will ever be a fire they can’t control,” Freeman said. “But these kids go home and start running exit drills. It increases awareness all the way around. And we’ve actually had children dialing 911 to report fires.”

Melana Robinson, Sloan’s mother, said she feels more confident now that her daughter has taken the class.

“She’s more educated than I was at her age,” she said. “She’s not afraid of firemen anymore.”

She turned to her daughter and asked: “What do you do if there’s a fire?”

“Dial 911,” Sloan said.

For more information about the programs, call (714) 645-8551.