McKinney, Texas - “Ok, cover your ears because it’s going to be pretty loud,” Merit Ossian said to the group of Vega Elementary second graders before pressing the test button on the smoke detector in her hands. It made a horrible noise—but a potentially lifesaving one.
And, that’s what brought Ossian—who serves as public relations officer and education coordinator for the McKinney Fire Department—to Vega Elementary on a rainy Monday morning, along with MFD Assistant Chief Sean Stephens, McKinney Police Officer Shannon Seabrook and Anna Simmons from the McKinney Office of Emergency Management, to kick off the first MFD Safety Squad session.
Merit Ossian of the McKinney Fire Department demonstrates the sound of a home smoke detector for Vega Elementary second graders.
Designed for MISD second graders, the Safety Squad pilot program will visit 11 MISD elementary campuses this year and 10 next year to teach vital safety skills during a designated P.E. period.
Planned as an outdoor event with six rotating stations, the morning storms brought the festivities inside to the Vega gym where the students visited four stations to learn about some of the equipment that firefighters use, how to move to safety during a fire, when to call 911 and how to be prepared for danger brought about by severe weather.
Vega Elementary second graders simulate crawling along the floor in a smoke filled house to practice how to safely evacuate their home in the event of a fire.
“This is a way for [the fire department] to reach so many children that we are not being exposed to right now,” said Ossian, “and we want them to have all of these fire and life safety skills that hopefully they will learn in a short amount of time. This has been a very successful program. It was started in Virginia Beach, so we’re taking a lot of the things that they’ve learned, and we’re putting them to work here in McKinney.”
