Gastonia fire official makes S'Mores, gives lesson about kids in hot cars

Melted chocolate may be more convincing than the warning words of public safety officials.

Gastonia Fire Department had a demonstration on how hot the inside of a car can get on Thursday, July 7 to discourage people from leaving their children inside hot cars.

Jim Landis, fire inspector for Gastonia fire department and coordinator for Safe Kids Gaston County, set out S’Mores on the dashboard of his car in the middle of the day while the outside temperature was 84 degrees.

The inside of the car had reached higher than the 130-degree thermometer could read, and the humidity needle spun around nearly 360 degrees back to the starting point.

Within minutes, the chocolate started melting down the sides of the marshmallows while Landis and other reporters were sweating just looking at the S’Mores baking in this oven-like condition inside the car.

Landis said that, although many believe that they surely would not forget their kids, there have been nearly 1,000 children who have died inside a hot car nationwide since 1998.

“It’s a real thing, it’s a real problem,” he said last week.

Landis said that children are usually left when their parent was supposed to leave them at daycare or preschool and then forgot to drop them off before going to work. When they are left in a locked car in their booster seat, they can start experiencing dehydration and heat-related shock. “Next thing you know, three hours have passed,” he said.

On Friday, July 1, a 1-year-old was left in a hot car by the father after he went to work at Armacell manufacturing plant in Mebane, North Carolina. The local police were alerted midday, but the infant had already died on that 86-degree day.

Landis had heard of another death the day before the demostration in Danielsville, Georgia, on Thursday, June 30. A mother working at Walgreens had left her 1-year-old in the backseat after she forgot to leave her child at daycare. The police were alerted of an unresponsive child in the vehicle. The infant was rushed to the hospital but was pronounced dead later that afternoon.

Rick Goodale, public information officer for Gastonia Police Department, called them “tragedies that were 100% preventable.”

According to the New South Wales Ministry of Health, babies and children are at a higher risk of overheating than adults because they generate more heat during exercise and do not sweat as much, reducing their ability to cool down.

The temperature inside of a parked car can be 85 to 105 degrees hotter than outside the car, and most of that temperature increase happens within five minutes after the car doors have been shut.

Landis has been trying to show this demonstration every year and frequently gets calls about children who were left in cars for him to come to unlock. “I do encourage the public to call 911 if they a see a child left in a car,” he said.

Some people may leave their kids in the car with the windows down or the keys in the ignition with the air conditioning on, but Landis said that would be an efficient way for someone to steal the car and the child. The New South Wales Ministry of Health also says, “having the windows down 5 centimeters causes only a very slight decrease in temperature.”

“You don’t want to leave a kid in the car at any time,” Landis said.

Landis suggests that there is one thing that people will remember to bring even more than their child: their cellphone. He encourages people to leave their cellphone in the backseat with their kid. Before leaving the car, they’ll remember to grab their cellphone and their child.

Newer cars also make it easier to remember that people may have left something in the vehicle, Landis said. If the car notices that the owner opened the backseat door, drove, then left without opening the backseat door again, the car will alert the owner that they may have left something in the backseat.

“You want to make sure your kids stay alive so they can eat S’Mores with you,” Landis said.

This makeshift oven evenly melted the entire marshmallow and the chocolate dripped on the ground when the s’mores were picked up. This is the type of experiment that easily provides imagery for how problematic it is to leave children inside of a hot car. It was very effective, and the S’Mores tasted amazing.

Luc Séguret, a rising senior at Western Carolina University, is working as a reporter for The Gaston Gazette until he returns to school in August. He can be reached at 828-206-2544 or email him at LSeguret@Gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Gastonia fire official's S'Mores offers lesson about kids in hot cars