Just under 1,100 students from the Primary and Elementary Schools toured and received instruction in the S.A.F.E. (Student Awareness of Fire Education) Fire Safety House. The fire safety house is an educational tool used to teach fire prevention and fire survival in an interactive manner. It is equipped with a living room, kitchen, bedroom and control room. The living room has an electric fireplace, bench seating, a telephone and an exit door. The kitchen, where most home fires occur, is equipped with a sink, stove and cabinets. The second-floor bedroom is furnished with a small bed, a smoke detector and a sliding door that opens onto a porch with an escape ladder. In the control room, firefighters can operate a theatrical fog machine to “smoke” one or all rooms in the house. Children are instructed to “crawl low beneath the smoke” as they exit to safety. Along the way they check the bedroom door for heat with the back of their hand. If the door feels warm they use their second way out and descend the fire escape ladder. Once safely outside they proceed to the meeting place. The phone system can be used to simulate a 9-1-1 emergency call to a dispatch center. Children are instructed to give their name, the address and type of emergency and to stay on the phone until they are told to hang up. Each room has a video camera and allows parents to view the children from outside on a television monitor. (Photo’s by Deputy Eric Germaine)