By BOBBIE GREEN
The Progress
A community pancake breakfast was served in the engine bay at Fire Station #3 on Saturday morning, Oct. 9, to wrap up the annual National Week of Fire Prevention. The breakfast was hosted by the Mesquite Fire and Rescue Department.
Local firefighters were busy cooking food for about 150 hungry supporters that showed up. CERT volunteers were also there to help serve up the food to the hungry crowd. The large bay was bustling with kids and adults enjoying breakfast with their friends and neighbors.
“This event marks the end of a long hot summer,” said Mesquite Fire Chief Jayson Andrus. “We have been doing this breakfast each year since 2015. We appreciate the CERT members that are here helping, we could not do this without them.”
“Prevention week is so good for the kids,” said Mesquite Mayor Al Litman. “It is good for them to meet firefighters and learn about fire prevention. This event gets them into the fire station to see and learn even more.”
Some members of the Fire Department have gone to the Arizona Fire Burn Educators School Association and learned how to educate young children in Fire prevention through the schools. They dress as known cartoon characters and uniformed firefighters promoting safety programs to the children.
The goal is to make the young children comfortable around safety officers. They start with the characters and graduate them to a firefighter in full uniform and gear including face mask and oxygen tanks.
This year the theme for National Fire Prevention Week was “Sounds of Emergencies.” The firefighters assembled the sets that were on display in the bay during the breakfast. They go out to the schools and familiarized the children with the different emergency sounds, Alarms, smoke detector, and how to dial 911.
EMT/Firefighter Tyler Black dresses as Mongo Light. He appeared in full costume to the delight of the kids. CCP/Firefighter April Lebaron was there as Nozzles and EMT/ Cody Cannon as Mustachio.
“This program works,” said Firefighter Black. “I have had kids bring their parents to meet me saying this is Mongo he is the one who taught me, 911 send. Or whatever else they remembered.”
Supporter Alice Jones said, “We came to support our local firefighters. They go to our schools and help our kids, we appreciate that.”
