New fire-prevention trailer is ‘hot’ subject

As the smoke rolls out the door, a group of 7-year-olds, on arms and elbows, wiggle their way across the floor and out of the mobile home.

The description above is fictional, but it’s one that could soon become reality for students of Maricopa Unified School District and the Maricopa Fire Department. Maricopa Fire was recently awarded a grant to purchase a 39-foot fire prevention trailer.

“This is going to be a great learning tool for the community,” said acting Fire Chief Wade Brannon.  A fire prevention trailer comes packed with programs, tools and aids that simulate actual disasters in an attempt to help children better understand what to do in a particular circumstance.

“What’s nice about this trailer is that it gives us very effective visual aids,” said Maricopa firefighter Mike McCorry. Those visual tools include fake flames coming off frying pans and out of trashcans, simulated smoke, warm doorknobs and screeching smoke alarms. McCorry said one exciting aspect of the trailer is a phone from which they can generate mock 911 calls.

“When a child picks up the phone to call 911, they are connected to a firefighter who is stationed in a closet in the trailer,” McCorry said. This is helpful for determining how well the children remember the information necessary to report an incident, he explained.

However, McCorry said calling 911 from inside the home is not always a good idea, especially in the case of a fire. “If there is a large fire, you need to get out of the home and not worry about taking anything with you or calling 911 from inside the residence,” he said.

The $72,000 trailer, slated for delivery by the start of the 2010-11 school year, would act as a supplement to the Fire Pals program McCorry instituted at MUSD in 2009. “We can teach children what they are supposed to do during an emergency and use the trailer to see those lessons actually in action,” McCorry said.

Currently, the Fire Pals program consists of firefighters meeting with children in all of the district’s elementary schools to educate them on the basics of fire and personal safety. “We expect kids to go home and share this information with their siblings and parents,” McCorry said.

The trailer will not be limited to school training and education. It will appear at city-sponsored events such as Founders Day and the annual salsa festival to help educate the public about fire safety.

“Fire awareness and safety education are two of the primary responsibilities of a fire department,” Chief Brannon said. “Us having to pull people from a fire is Plan B.”

(A version of this story appeared in the February issue of InMaricopa News.)

Photo by Michael K. Rich