To close out Fire Prevention Week, Bristol Tennessee firefighters will host an open house at the Central Fire Station from 10 am until 2 pm on Saturday, October 10th. Fire personnel will be providing safety tips related to this year’s national theme throughout the week of October 5th thru 9th. How often has the doorbell rung or a child interrupted you while you were cooking, causing you to forget about the chicken you left sizzling on the stove - until smoke filled the house?
If this scenario or a similar one sounds familiar to you, you may want to think about it a little more because it’s likely that you, a friend or family member has run the risk of having a dangerous fire. Bristol Fire Department personnel continuously talk to people about steps that can be taken to be fire-safe in their homes and the importance of working smoke alarms, but too often, that talk takes place after a damaging or a fatal fire.
During October’s open house, home safety literature will be distributed to visitors and firefighters will demonstrate equipment and present fire safety information. The department’s popular public education robot, “Patches and Pumper”, will be on hand to interact with visitors of all ages. “Blaze the Fire Dog, the smoke trailer, and hopefully the Fire Truck Slide will be at our open house,” said Jack Spurgeon, Asst. Chief. “Wellmont One air-transport unit will be on display and the crew will be available for demonstrations and questions from 10 am until 12 noon. There will also be refreshments and door prizes, as well as, fire helmets and badges for the kids.”
The fire service’s national theme this year is “Hear the Beep Where You Sleep: Every Bedroom Needs a Working Smoke Alarm.” Bristol firefighters will spend fire prevention week educating the public on the value and importance of preventing fires, in particular, cooking fires which are still the number one cause of residential fires, as well as, the importance and proper placement of smoke alarms. Smoke alarms are installed in an estimated 96 percent of American homes and when properly maintained and operating as intended, increase a person's chances of surviving a fire by 50 percent. Almost two-thirds of home fire deaths resulted from fires in homes with either no smoke alarms or smoke alarms that were not working.
The Central Fire Station is located at 211 Bluff City Highway, department personnel encourages the public to come by and meet their firefighters, crawl through the smoke trailer, enjoy the inflatable fire truck slide, play a game of corn-hole, and learn about fire safety.
