For about a month, second grade students in Sunnyside schools learned about fire safety and plans for escaping a fire.
Sunnyside Fire Capt. Tony Castillo visited the classrooms, teaching them to check the smoke detectors in their homes, not to play with matches and lighters, and to make and practice a fire safety plan.
The youngsters were shown E.D.I.T.H. (Exit Drills In The Home) House, a mobile unit used to demonstrate escapes from fire.
At the end of the class, which Castillo has been teaching in one form or another for the past 16 years, students are asked to develop a fire safety plan.
As a challenge this year, he not only encouraged the youngsters to “… go home and talk with their families,” but he wanted to further engage them by asking them to bring a fire safety plan back to school.
Castillo said the further encouragement was a way to get them beyond the classroom.
He returned to each school a week after finishing the class, collecting fire safety plans.