Millen-Jenkins County Fire & Rescue get fire safety funds

Millen-Jenkins County Fire and Rescue announced recently that they were awarded a fire safety grant from the Georgia Fire Fighter Burn Foundation, through their Chesney Grant process.

Safety training officer Robert Reeves Jr. has been a firefighter for 12 years and is always looking for ways to keep the citizens safe. He submitted this grant application in March and stated that he was excited to hear that it had been awarded to the local fire department.

According to Reeves, "The grant will allow us to teach the youngest children fire safety survival skills. Over the past three years, we have had five children die in fire-related incidents. It's very important that we teach our young children what to do in a fire emergency."

Sadly, according to the U.S Fire Administration, children under the age of 10 account for an estimated 22.2 percent of all fire-related deaths in the U.S., and Jenkins County no longer wants to be a part of that statistic.

The award will be used to acquire Buzzly Fire Safety programs that will be placed in the 25 elementary school classrooms (pre-K through third grade,) the public library (for homeschooled children) and the fire station.

The programs include a 17- minute animated video, teacher lesson plan, parent information handouts and student activity sheets. Reeves will also receive a 36" Buzzly Fire Safety puppet and CD that includes fire safety songs that kids will be sure to enjoy. He will use this puppet as another means to teach young children fire safety survival skills.

"We will have a Buzzly Fire Safety kick-off with the elementary school, to include the kindergarten through third grade children, in the fall, once classes are back in session," stated Reeves.

"I encourage everyone to look at a brief demo of the video and see the products at www.BuzzlyFireSafety.com. It's exciting to be able to introduce this program into our county, and to teach our youngest high-risk children what to do in a fire emergency."