HEATHER CASEY
Firehouse.Com News
Photo By Laura May
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Photo By Laura May
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Fire departments don’t clown around about fire prevention - except for the
Mesa, Arizona Fire Department, with its Great Escape clown show featuring
"Scorch" and "Booter."
Scorch, who wears firefighting gear and a big foam fire hat, tries to teach
Booter, in a western hat and chaps, how to make a home escape plan. The two
only succeed after getting help from the kids in the audience.
The show is being performed for first through third graders at 16 elementary
schools, and started running three weeks prior to Fire Prevention Week in
order to fit them all in.
"We’re probably reaching about 6,000 kids with the show," said Laura May,
department public education coordinator.
The two clowns are played by a Mesa firefighter and a public education
specialist.
Rob Antoniak, who plays Scorch, and Lon Eder, who plays Booter, pull kids
from the audience to act out parts in the show by putting on big foam props.
One plays the smoke detector, and another plays the meeting place, a
mailbox. The show lasts about 45 minutes.
Although the clown show uses the Great Escape theme of the National Fire
Protection Association, the idea for the show is the department’s own
creation.
"We came up with it ourselves last year," May said. "This is just the second
year we’ve been running it."
Photo By Laura May
|
Photo By Laura May
|
The city is also holding a contest for the best home escape plan drawn by a
student. The winner will get a ride to school on a fire truck and will have
their entry forwarded to the NFPA’s national contest for a trip to Disney
World.
Mesa’s kickoff to Fire Prevention Week, which took place Saturday at a city
park, featured a Sparky craft booth and a "hazard house."
"It’s like a doll house, specially designed for fire safety," May said. "One
room shows a man sleeping with a cigarette, and the room actually fills with
smoke, leaving the lower part clear for crawling."
Other rooms illustrate different hazards, such as a radio near the bathtub.
"It’s an attention getter, definitely," May said.
Other Mesa fire prevention activities include open houses at all 15 fire
stations, and an annual pancake breakfast Friday, where the food is free and
any donations are given to the Foundation for Burns and Trauma. The closing
event on Oct. 14 will be a fire safety fair.
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