Over 1,000 people are more educated on fire safety, thanks to the Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority's annual open house.
“This is where the firefighters in Bonnyville open up their house and invite the entire community to come in and discover what they do and why they do it,” said Fire Chief Brian McEvoy. “It also gives us an opportunity to educate the community on fire and life safety.”
Station chief Darryl Shyian add, “We're reminding people to look at their smoke alarms and to check them out because they have a life span of 10 years… and carbon monoxide detectors are seven years.”
Outside the fire station demonstrations took place. The first showed how quickly smoke alarms work, and the second showed what a sprinkler system does and how fast it can put out a fire.
“We showed with our demonstrations today that, within seconds of when a fire starts, how fast they can activate. That's a key thing for home safety,” explained Shyian.
An estimated 1,200 people came through the fire hall during the five-hour event on Tuesday, Oct. 12.
“I just want to say thank you to the Bonnyville Fire Department for coming through each and every year, it seems that this year is even bigger and better than last year,” said Bonnyville resident John McCormack. “Lots of education is happening here… I am just so thankful that we have such a fantastic community that does so much for it's people.”
The open house event, which has been happening for about 20 years, is a part of fire prevention week.
“It's an event that runs Sunday to the following Saturday. The National Fire Protection Association puts out themes and basically we run it here in the community and demonstrate to the public the capabilities of the fire department and showing the personnel and equipment we have,” added Shyian.
They also use it as a tool to introduce the fire department to the community and to anyone who may be interested in volunteering.
“We can also look for people who want to volunteer, here is an opportunity for them to meet the members and see what the roles encompass and potentially join,” Shyian added.
The open house serves as an opportunity for local firefighters to speak with the community about any ongoing fire safety issues.
“We want to reach as much of the community as possible, and we do that all year long with our public education campaigns and being in the schools and being in the work places and being at company safety meetings,” said McEvoy. “This opportunity here brings everyone together so we can address specific issues with the community, it also gives us the opportunity to show the community what an extremely dedicated group of volunteers can do and our doing for them everyday.”
While the evening allowed firefighters to share their message with the public, it also let the residents show their gratitude to the department.
“This shows us as a volunteer organization the great support we get from the community. I have never seen a community that continues to come out and support us very positively.”
In addition to their evening event, earlier in the day firefighters took time to visit local elementary schools.
Shyian added, “We spend the morning with the kids at the schools, and teach the boys and girls and working with them so they can learn fire aspects.”
The goal is that if they start with the message of fire safety at a young age, students will carry that lesson with them as they grow.
“They're little sponges and they take that in and they take it home to mom and dad and get them to say here's an opportunity for us to be practicing fire drills and escape plans and checking to make sure they have working smoke alarms,” said Shyian.
People in the community are able to learn a lot from these demonstrations that could potentially save their life.
“One of the things that really surprised me while I was here, with my background in the oil field, was how fast and how quick and how decimating a fire can be, and if you're not paying attention and you don't know what to look for this is where you want to be to find out how to keep those fires from happening and how to react,” said McCormack.