Fire Prevention Can Be Child’s Play

By NICHOLAS LOPEZ

All eyes were fixed om the Fire Department’s Dalmatian mascot, Hot Dog, as he waved his paws from a cherry picker at the kids on the roof of 30 Rockefeller Plaza on Tuesday.

He was in need of rescue.

Firefighters raised the ladder and the man in the dog suit (don’t tell the children) climbed down to safety.

The rescue was a demonstration by the department at National Fire Prevention Week, celebrated yearly in the second week of October.

Afterwards, more than 300 children, who came from schools across the five boroughs, donned bright red fire helmets and recited the Junior Firefighter’s pledge, an oath to remind them to practice fire safety and tell friends and family. The pledge was administered by Fire Commissioner Salvatore J. Cassano.

Before the swearing-in took place, Captain Mark Guerra from Engine 214, Sandy Sanservero the Director of Fire and Life Safety and Cassano spoke at the podium.

“Many times, we’ve seen how even young children have taken the knowledge and saved their own lives and the lives of their families, loved ones and friends,” Cassano said at the podium.

As they watched the big smiles on the children’s faces as they learned about fire safety, it made the firefighters crack smiles.

“It actually has happened a few times already,’” said Lt. John Erico, “where we went to the schools and talked to children and a few of them have gone home unfortunately, had a fire and they knew what to do and they escaped a burning home.”

‘When we get to talk to children, we know that they’re going to go home and talk to their parents,” said Cassano. “That’s the key. When children talk to their parents, they listen and one of those children are going to give them a message that saves their life.”

There were also educational displays with a house model, pamphlets and newer window security gates, which require two hands to open.

“The big thing is with the security gate,” explained fire safety expert Kevin Anderson, “a lot of people have them in their apartments and they don’t practice opening it and our fear is that if there’s a fire, then they’re going to realize, ‘Oh, let me use it’ and they’re not familiar with how to open it, it could be rusted shut or even worse, maybe someone put a padlock on it. So, we’ve gotten fires where people were trapped in their own apartments because either they didn’t know how to operate the gate or someone had put a padlock on it, so we want to make sure people are using Fire Department-approved gates.”

Also displayed were new alarms on the market, such as the “Worry-Free Alarm,” which contains lithium batteries lasting 10 years.

“Last year, 79 percent of our fatalities in New York City, there was either no detector or the detector was present and had no battery or a dead battery,” said Anderson.

Having a working smoke alarm and fire escape plan were two main things that were stressed this year, but Cassano said this was routine.

“We’re talking fire safety in the stations every day,” said Cassano. “We have literatures that we give out. We’re in Senior Centers, community events, schools, so while this is Fire Prevention Week, we do it every day and that’s the message, to be fire safe every day.”