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 The breakfast is a part of the fire department's annual
observance of National Fire Prevention Week. In Lincoln the
department actually does a month-long observance. The first event
was held on Sunday and was a fire truck parade through Lincoln that
included fire trucks and engines from throughout the county plus
Mason City.
The second event is the breakfast. Each year a third grade class
from a different school in Lincoln is selected for the morning long
event at the firehouse.
The day begins with pancakes prepared by Claude VanFossan and
sausages cooked by the firefighters. This year the two classes
totaled just over 40 students. The kids were accompanied to the
firehouse by their principal, Kelly Bogdanic, class teachers Donita
Biggs and Ren Anweiler; two teachers’ aides, Amy Tabor and Abby
Smith; and one parent chaperone, Mark Tippett.
After breakfast the kids were split into three groups. Corporal Ben
Roland took the first group on a tour of the upstairs living and
office area of the department.
Lieutenant Todd Koehler took the second group outside to learn the
difference between a fire truck and a fire engine.
The third group stayed on the ground floor of the station where
firefighters Andy Dexter and Robert Wood demonstrated how a
firefighter puts on his gear before going to fight a fire. The tours
and lessons continued until all three groups had experienced
everything the firefighters wanted to share with them.
Inspector Tim Aper led “class time” discussions about fire safety
and answered several questions from the students. Assistant Chief
Darren Coffey also talked to the students.
This year the theme for the Fire Prevention and Safety Week is “Hear
the beep where you sleep.” According to national statistics, the
majority of all home fires begin between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7
a.m., while most families are sleeping. The goal of Prevention Week
this year is to encourage the installation of smoke detectors in or
at least near all bedrooms in the home. As is typical of the
annual breakfast, part of the morning was spent talking about smoke
detectors and when to change the batteries. Other discussions
included what to do when the alarm on the smoke detector goes off.
Kids talked about rolling out of bed and crawling on the floor, how
to check a door before opening it, and what to do if the door feels
hot, which is keep it closed and go to a window and call for help.
At the end of the day, the kids were invited outside to have some
fun with the department firehouse. The fire house has windows with
flames showing in them. The kids were allowed to, with the help of
firefighter Robert Wood, use the large fire house to knock the
flames down from the windows.
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Other firefighters who were on hand to help with the breakfast
included Chief Mark Miller and Lieutenant Ty Johnson.
In addition to the firefighters, retired Fire Chief Bill Haak
stopped and spent much of the morning at the firehouse. Haak served
on the Lincoln Fire Department for 28 years, with eight of those
being as the Chief. He retired in 1997.
Also dropping in on the class Monday morning was newly appointed
Acting Mayor Marty Neitzel. Neitzel addressed the group briefly then
stayed for a while, lending a hand with cutting pancakes into bite
sized pieces for some of the students who needed the help.
In addition to the parade on Sunday and the breakfast on Monday, the
city fire department will have several other activities for area
students this month.
The department hosted a fire prevention poster contest and recently
announced the winners. One student each was chosen from
kindergarten, first, second, and third grades. The winners will get
a ride to school in a fire truck with the first ride being today
(Tuesday) for kindergartener Jocia Daniels.
The winner for this year includes Jocia, whose mother is Flicia
Daniels. Jocia is a student at Zion Lutheran School.
The first grade winner is Kate Farnam. Kate is the daughter of Craig
and Denise Farnam and is also a student at Zion Lutheran School.
Calvin Aukamp, son of Bret and Sally Aukamp of Middletown, is the
winner of the second grade class. Calvin is a student at Carrol
Catholic.
The third grade winner is Sydney Loeffler. Sydney’s parents are
James and Natalie Loeffler, and she attends Washington-Monroe
School.
The four winners were selected from a total of 249 entries this
year.
In addition to the rides to school, the firefighters will also be
paying visits to each of the elementary schools inside the Lincoln
city limits. At each school, the Department will give presentations
very similar to what was given at the breakfast on Monday.
Once again this year, Lincoln businesses and Lincoln Daily News
joined forces to create and print a supply of coloring books for the
fire department to distribute to children in the community. The
coloring books will be given out at the school visits this month,
with extras left over that may be given out at other times
throughout the next year. Thanks to the generous support of many
local businesses, new books are printed each year and are provided
at no cost to the Lincoln Fire Department.
[Nila Smith] |
