Portales turns up heat on Fire Prevention Week

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For the month of October, the Portales Fire Department held tours of its fire station for Brown Early Childhood Center kindergarten students, and is bringing the “Fire Buddy” fire safety education program to James Elementary School. Oct. 9-15 was proclaimed as Fire Prevention Week by Mayor Sharon King at the Tuesday Portales City Council Meeting.

Although Oct. 9-15 was proclaimed as Fire Prevention Week in Portales by Mayor Sharon King at the Oct. 4 city council meeting, the city’s fire department is working all month to inform area youth of the importance of fire safety and the constant role that the department plays in maintaining that safety.

According to Portales Fire Marshal Mike Inge, Friday marked the last day of a week-long series of fire station tours that the department conducted for kindergarten students from Brown Early Childhood Center.

“They get a pretty complex tour of the trucks and the ambulances and a tour of the station. We’ve got little things to give them, like a little plastic fire hat and some goodies, and a little badge and things,” Inge said. “We just teach them a little about fire safety; the guys teach them not to be afraid of us when we’re in full bunker gear, because, you know, you look like somebody out of the space age.”

Portales firefighter Gary Rains said he enjoys administering the tours because they “give them an understanding of what we’re here for.”

Another service the PFD offers is the “Fire Buddy” program for first-graders at James Elementary School, which provides fire safety education. While it occurs at James every month of the school year, Inge said, October presents an opportunity to help the students make their homes more fire-safe.

“We recently received a little bit of money, so we took the first-graders and gave them a piece of paper and asked them if they had a smoke detector. We got enough to nearly give the kids that we asked one smoke detector (each), because they don’t have any in their homes,” he said.

According to Inge, the department takes the program to James three Fridays of every month, and will speak to the students about Halloween safety for October.

Inge said that Halloween safety advice that will be given includes: “Try not to travel without an adult; you always want a flashlight and reflective clothing; not all black, because people can’t see you. Be mindful of the candy that people give you, because some of it can be dangerous. Mainly stick to the stuff that’s processed, not the stuff that’s made, because you never know.”

The first grade is an important age to bring fire safety to a child’s attention, Inge said, because they absorb the material easily.

“To me, it’s easier to teach them now at that level, and then it’s a repetitive thing, and by the time they become young adults, they’ve heard this all their adolescent life,” he said.