Children's Museum of Southern Minnesota hosts Fire Safety Education Day

Holly Marie Moore, The Free Press, Mankato, Minn.
·2 min read

Aug. 19—Five-year-old twin brothers Brydon and Benton Steinhaus and their dad, Eric, took a ride Saturday that taught them the importance of seatbeltsy.

The ride was just one of many different features of the Children's Museum of Southern Minnesota's Fire Safety Education Day.

"I think it's important because what if the parents are subdued? The kids need to have some idea of what to do. Teaching them the importance of it, and how, if they don't keep that in mind they can actually get hurt, mommy and daddy can get hurt, too. It's very important," Eric said.

The boys added that one of their favorite activities of the day included seeing the police at the museum.

The event featured several hands-on activities for kids, including the chance to try out a firehose, explore different fire trucks and emergency vehicles and witness a smoke simulator house to learn what to do in the event of a fire and the importance of acting quickly in emergencies.

Area fire departments, such as North Mankato, Mankato and Lake Crystal, had trucks on site.

Gary Reed, assistant chief for the Lake Crystal Fire Department, said education is the best way to prevent fires.

"You can have all the fancy trucks, all the water, all the technology, but if you start at an early age teaching these kids how to prevent fires, that's the best way we've got for fighting fires," he said.

Reed encouraged families to practice fire drills at home.

He also said if kids or adults see a fire, the most important thing to do is get to safety first.

"911 is huge, but the thing is get to safety. That's the number one thing, because they can't call 911 if they don't get to safety," he said.

Rachel Gemlo, the museum's director of programming, said one main goal of the day was to get kids comfortable with how firefighters look when they're dressed up and encourage families to have a plan when emergencies happen.

"It's good to just get exposure and to know all the different people that help in those situations, but one of the big things was when a firefighter's all dressed up, even an EMT or anything, they look different than mom and dad, and so to just show them that this is all the parts and the pieces," she said.