If you think being an Airdrie firefighter is only about putting out fires, think again.

Today (May 31), some Airdrie firefighters turned into part time teachers and instructed some pre-schoolers in the Airdrie Little Sprouts Pre-School on fire safety.  It was, as firefighter Travis Tilson explained, all a part of their "Play Safe - Be Safe" program.

"Teachers will provide the fire safety information in class with the children.  Once that's occurred we show up with the fire truck and we re-emphasize some of the key safety messages that the teachers have provided for the kids.  Then we give them a little tour of the fire truck and be available to answer any questions."

Tilson says they pass along information that is good for kids to know and understand.  "Keeping elements like lighters and matches away and making sure that kids understand that those aren't toys.  The other thing is having a proper fire escape plans for kids, stay low, crawl under the smoke, we like to emphasize that."

Another important part of working with kids is helping them to get to know the firefighters and know that, even with their heavy equipment on, they aren't that scary.  "Quite often when we wear all our protective equipment and gear, especially for children three to five years old, it can be quite a scary thing for them.  So it's a really good opportunity to get with the kids and don all the fire gear and sort of let them know that we're there to help, we're not something to be afraid of."

Sometimes getting through to someone three, four or five years of age can be a challenge according to Tilson, but he feels it's worth the effort.  

"What's good about it though is we allow the teachers prior to us arriving to really emphasize and promote this program and get some of those key safety messages across to the children.  We find that if the teachers are doing their job from their end it really makes our job quite easy.  But, they're three and five year olds, sometimes they're just more interested in telling stories and that kind of stuff.  The way we look at is, even if we're able to really make an impact or get the message through to even a small percentage of the children, then we've made a difference."

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