HEATHER CASEY
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Also: Sparky Parade Slide Show
The Glenwood, Illinois Fire Department was one of twenty-four fire departments that teamed up Monday to open Fire Prevention Week in style, with a 56-mile parade featuring Sparky the Fire Dog, the official "spokesdog" of the National Fire Protection Association.
"Sparky's Great Escape Parade" traveled through 23 Chicago suburbs and ended in Chicago Heights, said Terry Campbell, public education coordinator of the Glenwood Fire Department.
The goals of the parade were to reach the greatest number of children who are at high risk of dying in a fire, and to encourage partnership among firefighters in the effort of fire prevention.
The parade started at 1010 South Clinton Street in Chicago, near the place Mrs. O'Leary's cow is famed for starting the Great Chicago Fire.
Chicago Heights, the end point of the parade, is the home of second-grader Mike Yachinich who escaped a home fire with his mother in March. Mike woke his mother after he heard the smoke detector, and then called 911 from next door.
Mike had participated in the "Fire Drills the Great Escape" program at his school in Glenwood, and he and his mother are the most recent of 58 documented lives saved due to participation in the program, Campbell said.
The parade lasted from 6 a.m. into the late afternoon.
The Glenwood Fire Department is also marking Fire Prevention Week with participation in the NFPA's national contest for the best home escape plan drawn by a student, worth a vacation to Disney World.
The department will choose one entry to submit to the NFPA contest, and will award the entrant another special prize - a ride to school on a ladder truck, which almost the whole school turns out to see.
"These kids are more excited about that than the trip to Walt Disney World," Campbell said. "It doesn't cost us much, but boy it goes a long way."
To keep safety education ongoing, the department also runs a year-round "adopt a firefighter" program, in which a firefighter gets matched up with one or two school classes and periodically goes in to give lessons.
"We're in every classroom district wide, every month, all year," Campbell said.
The firefighters are given instructions developed by the fire department and the NFPA on how to work with the children. "We want to be age-appropriate and positive," Campbell said.
The lessons range from just seeing firefighters in their turnout gear and SCBA, to learning about flammable liquids, to seeing a thermal imaging camera, and more. "For the older grades we beef it up a little," Campbell said.
The department is also addressing other kinds of safety, such as water safety, firearm safety and motor vehicle safety.
The department uses a safety trailer with a full size kitchen, bedroom and living room to demonstrate a variety of safety issues to the public. The kitchen blinds, for example, have no cord because it can serve as a choking hazard for children.
The Glenwood Fire Department has documented a 52 percent drop in the number of fires in their community since 1997, which they attribute to their educational efforts.
The combination department serves a population of 10,000, with four full-time firefighters, 33 paid on-call firefighters and several cadets.
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