Safety night upcoming at the Shelburne Fire Department

Written By Paula Brown

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Shelburne and District Fire Department is hosting a fire safety night to help educate families and residents
about emergencies. 

The safety information session will be held at the Shelburne and District Fire Hall at 114 O'Flynn St. on Thursday (May 4) from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. 

“We want to get various safety messages out to the people, and to create some interaction with our residents,” said Chief Ralph Snyder. “We practice regularly on Thursday nights and we want to open our doors so people can come and meet our firefighters, see our equipment and know we are a very well-equipped fire department that can respond to just about
any emergency.” 

The fire department will share information on safety topics such as fire extinguishers, ATV safety, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, escape planning, choking and first aid emergencies, and more. 

“We had each platoon pick a topic that they thought was important to deliver a message on. The choice of the topics is out of their experiences on various calls in the past, that they are familiar with,” said Snyder. 

The information session will also look at mitigating some of the misconceptions surrounding fire safety, such as the life span of fire and carbon monoxide alarms and the length of time you have to evacuate. 

“One misconception is that smoke and CO alarms last forever – they don't – they have a life span and should be replaced,” said Snyder. “The amount of time you have to get out of a house has changed dramatically in the last 30 years, just due to building materials.” 

Snyder also said the information session will give new residents a better understanding of how the Shelburne and District Fire Department operates as a volunteer-based fire department. 

“What we're seeing with the new demographic in Town is that some of them don't understand how our fire service works, that we don't have a manned fire station that can respond instantly,” said Snyder. “There an opportunity here to get that bit of important information out there so that residents know enough to protect themselves until we can get there.”