City of Alpena Fire Department Spreads Theme for National Fire Prevention Week

It’s National Fire Prevention Week, and the city of Alpena Fire Department is spreading this year’s theme, “don’t wait, check the date” to local schools and residents of Alpena.

Earlier today the city of Alpena Fire Department stopped by Ella White Elementary School to speak to students about fire safety, and replacing smoke alarms.

According to Lieutenant Andy Marceau, everyone should replace their smoke alarms every 10 years. This year’s theme is to send a reminder to students and their parents to check and change their smoke alarms in case of a future fire.

Marceau along with other firefighters encouraged kids and gave them tips if they were in a real fire situation.

“We encourage the kids not to hide from us because we are going to look and sound different when we come into their house. But if they’re up on the second story and can’t get out we encourage them to throw things out of their window such as stuff animals, books, just anything so that when we come around the corner to the backyard we can see that stuff and obviously we’re going to look up and see those kids and get a ladder and bring them down safe,” Marceau said.

After the presentations students were given a goodie bag to take home to share with their parents.

Marceau said parents and kids should go through the bag together and come up with a special meeting place and practice a fire escape plan.

The city of Alpena Fire Department will be attending Besser Elementary, Lincoln Elementary, and other places later this week.