Fire Prevention Week in Hancock

It’s Fire Prevention Week and students in Hancock were the guests of the volunteer fire department. Assistant Fire Chief Joe Neher said these elementary school students were treated to full line-up of fire safety activities.

Then the students got to visit to the Fire Department for more learning and excitement. Then things really got exciting.

Keweenaw Bureau Reporter Rick Allen says he was in that room when they filled it with smoke and then killed the lights. Rick says you could not see anything. A fireman in his full fire suit crawled in using a breathing apparatus, headlamp, and a special heat sensitive camera to seek out the students.

Rick reports that it looked a little like Darth Vader coming in. He said he certainly can understand why the fire department wanted to prepare the students in case they were ever caught inside a house fire. The smoke and the darkness can be scary enough, you don’t want kids afraid of the one person who can save their lives. Fortunately, in this case, the smoke was only a harmless vapor and the students were perfectly safe, but they will be better prepared if they are ever in that situation for real.

Fire Prevention Week continues across Michigan through Saturday, October 15.