Vernon fire prevention week highlights the importance of fire alarms as town council members join education efforts 

Olivia Mel­lo
UConn Newswrit­ing
Octo­ber 2024

VERNON – The first time four town coun­cil mem­bers will step up as fire edu­ca­tors, aim­ing to teach impor­tant safe­ty lessons in local ele­men­tary schools. 

Ver­non kicks off its annu­al fire pre­ven­tion week this upcom­ing week. Each year the town’s fire depart­ment and town coun­cil pick a fire safe­ty focus to high­light for the week. This year the focus is fire alarms.  

The town has been doing fire pre­ven­tion week since 1992 and since then it has become the longest pub­lic health obser­vance in the coun­try. The hol­i­day came about due to the Great Chica­go Fire which killed and injured many in the 1870s. Due to that fire the town saw the impor­tance of edu­cat­ing the com­mu­ni­ty about fire pre­ven­tion and safe­ty.  

Fire Mar­shal Daniel Wasilews­ki told coun­cil mem­bers on an Oct.1. meet­ing announce­ments on what events will be tak­ing place dur­ing this week. He advo­cat­ed to the coun­cil on the impor­tance of fire alarms. The town coun­cil vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly to approve this year’s fire pre­ven­tion week. Sig­nal­ing for a strong com­mu­ni­ty effort in the pro­tec­tion of oth­ers.    

 Wasilews­ki goal for the week is to spread aware­ness to peo­ple in town about check­ing to see if their alarms are up to date and work­ing. The slo­gan this year being, “Smoke alarms make them work for you,” he said. Along with that he expressed his enthu­si­asm about oth­er edu­ca­tion­al fire safe­ty events going on at the fire sta­tion going on this week.  

Coun­cil mem­ber Phyl­lis Win­kler is excit­ed about this upcom­ing week because she holds a large role in fire safe­ty edu­ca­tion. Win­kler is a new mem­ber of the town coun­cil but has held a large role in the com­mu­ni­ty for a while, espe­cial­ly when it comes to her role in fire safe­ty edu­ca­tion.  

For 30 years, Win­kler has been a fire edu­ca­tor for the town. Dur­ing that time, she also was a teacher and has since retired. Her role dur­ing fire pre­ven­tion week is to go to all five ele­men­tary schools in town talk­ing to every class about the impor­tance of fire safe­ty.  

Win­kler is accom­pa­nied by the Ver­non Fire Depart­ment when she goes to school. This year is spe­cial because four oth­er mem­bers of the coun­cil are being trained to become fire edu­ca­tors. This is the first time the town has decid­ed to do this.  

Win­kler stat­ed how excit­ed she was about the new addi­tion of fire edu­ca­tors to help her go around to each ele­men­tary school. She also said how it is also impor­tant that the town coun­cil can become more famil­iar with the town coun­cil. When asked Win­kler was not pos­i­tive on exact­ly which of the oth­er town coun­cil mem­bers were becom­ing fire edu­ca­tors.  

When Win­kler and the mem­bers of the fire depart­ment go to the schools, they focus on the safe­ty aspects but also let the chil­dren have fun and make sure they feel com­fort­able with the fire­fight­ers. Win­kler men­tioned that in the past there had been issues with chil­dren fear­ing the fire­fight­ers when they came dressed in their full gear dur­ing school fire drills. To fix that issue, this year they are show­ing the chil­dren each step a fire­fight­er goes through when they gear up.  

Fire edu­ca­tion focus­es on inform­ing the kids about stoves, out­lets, grills, and open flames. Each class also comes up with an escape plan if there was a fire in the class­room or dur­ing the school day. The fire­fight­ers and fire safe­ty edu­ca­tors like to pri­or­i­tize cre­at­ing a fun envi­ron­ment for the chil­dren by adding in addi­tion­al yet edu­ca­tion­al fun activ­i­ties like learn­ing how to do “stop drop and roll” and going out and see­ing the firetruck and get­ting a pic­ture inside. 

Win­kler said that it is imper­a­tive to edu­cate chil­dren on the impor­tance of fire safe­ty. Allow­ing them to not feel afraid if a fire were to hap­pen and mak­ing sure they know how fire safe­ty is impor­tant in their own homes. This year, Win­kler believes that Ver­non has made strides in enhanc­ing their efforts for fire pre­ven­tion week.  

Win­kler said that the com­mu­ni­ty’s response to Fire Pre­ven­tion Week has always been over­whelm­ing­ly pos­i­tive, with many peo­ple in the com­mu­ni­ty express­ing grat­i­tude for the ini­tia­tive.  

Phyl­lis Win­kler: Spoke over the phone  

Email Con­tact: pwinkler@vernon-ct.gov or Winkler.phyllis@gmail.com