FDL Fire and Rescue Introduces Inflatable Fire Education House

(Photo: Roger Zuleger and Richard Slate of the Francis and Ruth Oberreich Foundation present a check to Troy Haase and Peter O’Leary of Fond du Lac Fire and Rescue)


Fond du Lac Fire and Rescue
has a new fire safety education tool. Thanks to a grant from the Francis and
Ruth Oberreich Foundation, the department has purchased a new state-of-the-art
Inflatable Fire Education House. Division Chief of Fire Prevention Troy Haase
says the new inflatable house covers a lot of different fire safety topics for kids in
Kindergarten through Fifth Grade. 
“It’s a way for children to go through this
house and learn about kitchen fires and smoking hazards” Haase says. “It gives you an
opportunity to talk about exits and how to crawl when there’s smoke, and once
you get out we talk about calling 9-1-1 and going somewhere safe and not going
back into the building.” Haase adds that the training is especially focused towards fifth graders because “at
fifth grade they should be able to explain to their parents what they learned
and maybe start to implement some of the things they learned at home.”

The
inflatable house takes about five minutes to set up, and was purchased as an
alternative to the fire education trailer the department has been using.