In Which Sparky Gets Replaced

The girls and I went to a fire prevention class earlier this month. In talking about fire safety before we went, I realized that our 2nd-born daughter was really young last time we had a fire drill or talked about fire safety much. In fact, I think she was 5. And of course the youngest was 1 last time we visited a fire station.

So...it was an overdue trip. The oldest begged to go and I thought "she's just trying to get out of her work" (college work). But she said she really wanted to get out of the house. Fair enough.

Turns out she thought we were only going to a clarinet lesson (which we did before the class) and was as surprised as could be when we pulled up to the fire station. **insert eye roll here**

The fire department was in Santa Fe, the same town that suffered a high school shooting back in May. The girls and I were thinking about that during the class--that these were some of the same EMTs and firefighters that probably responded to that horrible scene just a few months ago. I have all the respect for them.

And why wouldn't you respect them? DJ Blaze put on a great show.

But I felt a wee bit out-dated. Instead of talking about stop-drop-and roll, they talked about never charging your tablet and putting it under your pillow. And about not overloading your plugs with electronics. Okaaayyy...this is a bit more "modernized."

And then--THEN! He pulled a little stuffed Dalmatian out of his pocket and asked us who it was. Oooh! I know this one! I started to holler out, "SPARKY!" just as all the kids yelled out, "MARSHALL!"

Huh?

Oh. It seems poor old Sparky the Fire Dog has taken a backseat to Marshall from Paw Patrol.

But they kids really learned a lot and we got to tour the fire house. Now all that's left is to practice our home fire safety plan. Oh, and to get a new fire extinguisher, because ours expired.

They had to practice rolling out of bed, crawling to the door, feeling it for heat, and escaping through a window. 

Do you have a fire plan? Do your kids know 2 ways out of their room? Do they know 2 ways out of your house? Do you have a meeting place?

October is fire safety month, so get your plan in place!

Signing off,