Spokane Valley, Spokane fire departments receive FEMA grants to help with new fire safety program in elementary schools

The Spokane Valley Fire Department recently launched a new fire education program for elementary school students to replace the one that had firefighters bringing a miniature house to schools during Fire Prevention month each fall.

“We had to change our program completely because of the pandemic,” Fire Marshal Greg Rogers said.

The State Fire Marshal’s Office received a grant from FEMA to provide the Sound Off Program with the Home Fire Safety Patrol to local fire departments. Both Valley Fire and the Spokane Fire Department were selected to participate, Rogers said. The Sound Off program was created by the Michigan Public Health Institute.

Firefighters will visit every second and third grade classroom in the West Valley, Central Valley and East Valley school districts to help teach the program. There are four lessons and some can be taught by the teachers, with the firefighters teaching one or two of the lessons when they visit, Rogers said. The lessons include creating an escape plan out of your home, smoke alarms, finding fire hazards in the home and a safety story.

“We actually recorded the story so it can be done virtually,” Rogers said. “We prefer to come in (to the classroom) because it gives it a little extra flavor.”

News of the grant funding came as the department was already searching for a new fire education program, Rogers said, and they were already considering the Sound Off program. “We were already looking at it for our community because it’s a nationally recognized program,” he said. “It really didn’t matter if the state gave us a grant or not, we were still going forward with it.”

Firefighters began visiting Spokane Valley schools last month to present the new program, which is more flexible than the old one, Rogers said. “We’ve heard nothing but positive things about it,” he said. “It allows teachers to fit it into their schedule.”

Spokane Fire Department Community Risk Reduction Manager Jamie McIntyre said her department was also looking for a new fire safety program after the pandemic hit. When schools went virtual last year, the department created an online fire safety program for first and second graders on their own. “We’ve had really active participation with elementary students in the last 20 years,” she said.

She liked that Sound Off takes into account how children are learning now. “It was driven by research,” she said. “It’s colorful, it’s fun, but it’s also accurate.”

McIntyre said she hopes to bring the new program to classrooms in the Spokane Public Schools district by the end of the year. “We are just in the process of getting started,” she said.

Once all the Spokane Valley schools have been visited, the Valley Fire Department will schedule a visit from a fire engine at each of the schools. It gives students a chance to see a fire engine up close and it’s also a chance to remind them about the fire safety messages they learned in the classroom, Rogers said. “The crew reinforces the messages that have been taught,” he said.

The grant includes smoke alarms that can be given to students who don’t have smoke alarms in their homes. The department has had a similar program for years, and Rogers said he’s aware of at least 11 cases in the last few years when that program saved a family from a fire.

Rogers said he knows of one student who participated in the old fire education program who heard his alarm chirping every few minutes and knew it meant that the battery was dead because he learned it at school. He told his mother and she changed the battery. That very night, a fire broke out in the family’s kitchen and that smoke alarm sounded and allowed the family to get out safely, Rogers said.

Valley Fire and Spokane Valley have also been asked to partner with the Michigan Public Health Institute in creating an entirely virtual Sound Off Online program to create online lessons that teachers across the country can use for free. “We agreed to partner with them on that,” Rogers said.

Once the virtual program is complete, the department will be able to use it for homeschooled students, Rogers said. “That’s an extra benefit we didn’t even think about,” he said.

The FEMA grant is also paying to bring the Sound Off program to six other states, including Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts and Vermont.

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Correspondent Nina Culver can be reached at nculver47@gmail.com.