Western Salisbury Volunteer Fire Company firefighters took their annual fire prevention program activities Oct. 7 and 8 to Salisbury Township nonpublic schools utilizing in-school attendance during the ongoing pandemic.

Students at Lehigh Christian School, St. Thomas More School and the Lehigh Valley Hospital’s preschool day care center learned ways to be fire safe at home and at school.

The programs were narrated by Western Salisbury Volunteer Fire Company Chief Joshua Wells, who said the department’s firefighters look forward to the school fire prevention programs every year during October’s National Fire Prevention Week.

While this year’s national fire prevention programs focus on fire safety in the kitchen, Wells also talked about the importance of having smoke detectors in every bedroom, avoiding playing with lighters or matches, how to have a home fire drill, how to use 911 to call for help and the “stop, drop and roll” technique to extinguish clothing which has caught fire.

Part of every program includes firefighters transitioning from street clothes to full protective gear. While geared-up firefighters might be frightening to a youngster at home at night during a fire situation, Wells emphasized a firefighter is their friend and is there to help them. The exercise is to assure the youngsters they should never be afraid and hide from a firefighter.

This year’s pleasant early-October weather also allowed outside demonstrations of the department’s engines and allowed firefighters to flow water from hose lines.

The program has been taken into Salisbury Township schools by firefighters for decades to expose youngsters in their early grades about the importance of fire safety. A number of Western Salisbury firefighters who help present the programs remember their days in Salisbury elementary schools when they were students learning the same principles.