Robbinsdale Fire Department on Mission to Educate Public

October is Fire Prevention Month.

But for the Robbinsdale Fire Department, educating the public is a year-round mission.

“It’s never enough to just simply talk about it once and walk away, that’s why we’ve initiated a pretty strong public education program here in the city of Robbinsdale throughout the fire department,” says Robbinsdale Fire Chief Guy Dorholt. 

Robbinsdale Fire Department raises awareness about fire safety.

Public Education

Firefighters go into the classroom or invite kids to the station to talk about how smoke detectors save lives, to crawl low under smoke, and to make a fire escape plan that includes a designated safe meeting place.

Fire Marshal Greg Bodin speaks to students about fire safety.

“If people get out the front door, or the back door, or the window, where does the family go because the first question when we get there, ‘Everybody out?’ and if they all go to one place, then we know, everybody is out, or no not everybody is out. Then we are in a rescue situation,” says Robbinsdale Fire Marshal Greg Bodin.

Every August, the Robbinsdale Fire Department hosts an open house to raise fire safety awareness.

“We do a lot of fire prevention training, we do stop drop and roll for the kids, we do fire extinguish training, we do demonstrations on auto extraction, structure fires, and kitchen fires,” says Bodin. 

Kitchen safety is an emphasis during October’s Fire Prevention Month

“The number one cause of fires in the United States occur in kitchens and the number one cause of fire injuries occur in kitchens,” says Bodin. 

He has these kitchen safety tips:

• Don’t leave things unattended
• Don’t wear loose clothing while you are working over a hot stove
• Don’t leave combustibles or grease near an oven
• Don’t forget to set a timer or an alarm, so you know when your cooking is done
• Don’t forget about small children

“If you are cooking with little children around it’s best to cook on the back burners so kids can’t reach up and grab.”

Bodin also recommends turning your handles inward so kids can’t reach and pull something hot over on themselves. 

Although these are simple things, Bodin says they can make a big difference in preventing fires.

“I would rather prevent a fire that have to respond,” says Bodin.  

Robbinsdale

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