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It Begins at Home
Fire Safety for Preschoolers By Felicia Hodges
"I used to make a game out of it," says Betty Arrenson, a kindergarten teacher and mother of two. "Before they started school and I needed to light the stove, I'd challenge my children to a treasure hunt and send them looking in another room for a pink object or something shaped like a square. It worked like a charm."
Wiseman adds that because young children are so imitative, it is important for parents to do the right thing when it comes to fire safety as well. For lots of parents, though, the concept of getting out of the house each time the detector goes off is a difficult one to follow through on, especially if it sounds whenever someone puts bread in the toaster.
"All too often, we get jaded because every time [someone] cooks, the smoke detector goes off," Wiseman says. "You don't want your children to be awakened in the middle of the night and think 'It's just Mom cooking again.' It should be treated as a possible real fire each time you hear it. If you do that, the children will get the message very clearly."
If your detector goes off every time you boil water or whenever the bathroom door is opened after a shower, it probably is not in a place that could offer your family the most protection.
"Most detectors are designed to trip if the temperature rises 10 degrees in 60 seconds," Wiseman says. A detector in areas like in the kitchen or near a fireplace or bathroom are not recommended. Moving it to an area with a more even temperature will help you and your family take detector alarms a bit more seriously.
