Nearly 500 kids under the age of 14 die in house fires each year. To educate families about making a fire safety plan, Holland Hill Elementary School PTA, which serves a Title I school community in Fairfield, Conn., hosted a family fire safety event with National PTA and Kidde, North America’s #1 fire safety brand*, during Fire Prevention Month in October.
Nationwide, only 26% of families have a fire escape plan that they have discussed with their kids. Fire Prevention Month is a good opportunity to educate families about the dangers of house fires and to help families make sure they have working smoke alarms and an escape plan.
“I don’t think that was from any lack of attention from teachers or our community—our local fire departments are actually very involved with the schools—but it [fire safety] does seem to garner less attention than it did when I was a kid,” says Holland Hill Elementary PTA President Alix Morrow.
For their event, the PTA invited local fire, police, and health departments along with the Bridgeport Hospital Burn Unit, First Selectman Bill Gerber, State Representative Christine McCarthy Vahey, and Past National PTA President/Fairfield PTA President James Accomando.
Over 250 people attended their event. “Attendees said the best piece of safety advice was to create a plan of where to evacuate [to] in case of a fire,” said Morrow. “I felt so much better knowing that my family of four all agreed on a meeting point and various routes for escape in the event of a fire,” she added.
In addition to door prizes, event goers also received free smoke alarms donated by Kidde,, which encouraged important discourse around how old their smoke alarms were or when they last checked/changed the battery. The remaining alarms were given to the nearby Bridgeport burn unit to be distributed to patients.
“Before attending this event, the local burn unit didn’t have readily available resources to provide their patients to help prevent a fire emergency from happening again,” Morrow says. “We were thrilled to be able to pay it forward.”
Organizing a High-Impact Fire Safety Event: 5 Lessons
Holland Hill Elementary’s PTA had five lessons they learned from their experience to help other PTAs host successful fire safety events in their schools.
Lesson 1: Start the Planning Process Early
Finding a date that worked for local schools and organizations was the most challenging part of planning the evening. Morrow recommends beginning the process about two months in advance for the most stress-free experience and encouraging collaboration between event sponsors and hosts.
“The coordination between National PTA and our school PTA and community was wonderful,” said Holland Hill Elementary Principal Molly Farrell.
Lesson 2: Make the Programming Interesting
Busy families who take time out of their schedule to attend any educational event deserve a wealth of helpful information, not just from the event sponsors, but from their local community.
Organizing an agenda with input from local representatives and PTA alums— including games to hold children’s attention—will go a long way towards generating positive feedback.
Lesson 3: Order More Pizza!
Food makes any good event better, and there’s nothing like a great meal to bring people together. Order more food than you think you’ll need!
“We almost ran out of food at one point because we had such a huge turnout, which was a great problem to have,” Morrow says. “We ordered more pizza and then everyone was happy!”
Lesson 4: Teach Safety Throughout the Year
Weighty topics like fire safety are best taught year-round, not just when an opportunity presents itself. Holland Hill hosts an annual Fire Safety Trailer for third graders with the Fairfield Fire Department. “We also do a Fire Prevention assembly for fourth and fifth graders each year,” says Farrell.
Lesson 5: Make it Fun for Kids!
Children learn best by doing, so offering games that are age-appropriate, and fun is a great way for kids to learn about fire safety.
Holland Hill’s event featured a true-false quiz hosted by the fire department during the Kidde presentation. Another highlight was the Life Safety truck, which mimicked an actual home. “Kids [could] enter and learn about safety in different parts of the house firsthand,” said Morrow.
Bringing Fire Safety to More PTA Communities
National PTA and Kidde will continue to ramp up fire safety education for families, supporting additional PTAs in hosting fire safety events.
Be sure to share the Cause for Alarm Fire Safety Toolkit within your community, as it includes imperative fire safety information for all families.
Kidde is a Proud National PTA Sponsor. National PTA does not endorse any commercial entity, product, or service. No endorsement is implied.
*Based on internal estimates of total household installations as of December 2023
