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Youth Fire Safety

September 18, 2024

Olympia – As the new school year starts, the State Fire Marshal’s Office (SFMO) urges educators and parents to teach children about fire safety and their responsibilities during a fire. It is vital for kids to recognize the hazards of fire and know how to react in an emergency. Last year in Washington State, nearly 8% of fire-related deaths involved children under age 10.

The SFMO suggests teaching children the following fire safety tips:

    • Teach children not to play with items that can cause fires such as matches, lighters, candles, and cooking equipment.
    • Establish a three-foot kid-free zone where fire and safety risks are present in the home such as in the kitchen, near a fireplace, and around space heaters.
    • Let them hear the sound a smoke alarm makes and teach them to leave the building quickly and safely when they hear it.
    • Discuss when to call 911 and what information to provide.
    • Practice a fire escape plan twice a year with at least two exit pathways.
    • Teach children that if there is a fire, they should go outside to the designated family meeting spot and stay outside.
    • Let them know that hiding during a fire is not safe.
    • Teach children that if there is smoke, they need to get low and crawl to the nearest exit.
    • For children in the first grade and beyond, demonstrate to how to stop, drop, and roll and the importance of doing so if their clothes catch on fire.
    • Inform children what to do during a fire drill at school, and to follow their teachers’ instructions.

For more information, please contact the State Fire Marshal’s Office at (360) 596-3929.

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Release sent by Chief Deputy State Fire Marshal Gregory Baruso

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