Firefighters have a new tool

The fun way to teach children fire safety and emergency preparedness. Kid tested, firefighter, teacher and parent approved.

(PRWEB) September 26, 2004 -- Theres a new kid in town...

He looks kind of funny and only has four fingers on his hands, but he has a serious message. This kids name is Matt, his friends call him flat Matt and his message is shouted loud and clear, Stop, Drop, Cover and Roll!"

The problem Matt is shouting about is that someone is fatally injured in a home fire in the USA about every three hours. Matt knows that more than 250,000 children (ages 0-17) are burned each year and that eighty-percent of all burn injuries and deaths are preventable. In the USA, children playing with fire have started more than 40,000 home fires. This is a tremendous amount of death and destruction that could be prevented. And Matt is serious about getting children educated about the fire safety technique of Stop, Drop, Cover and Roll.

It used to be the message was just Stop, Drop and Roll. Now those involved with Fire Prevention, Education and burn victims insist that the message must become Stop, Drop, Cover and Roll. Too many children are disfigured for life by fire. The pain to repair damaged facial tissue is horrific and often only a minimum can be done to save delicate face tissue. The Cover" part of the technique has to be emphasized to help save these children from a life of pain and trauma," says Es Berliner

How the Kit was created                  
The Stop, Drop, Cover and Roll Kit was designed by Fire Prevention Specialist, Es Berliner and psychologist, (the late) Dr. June Gersten of California . I saw how the children were immediately hooked into seeing me do the actions and saying the words. I knew if I could get them to do the actions and say the words, the lesson would have a huge impact on them. The creation of the felt flames which we apply on the children with double sided tape was the clincher. Now the children had the visual connection and believe me, even very young children understand the correlation between the felt flames and real fire," says Berliner.

The technique has been used successfully throughout California and has even been on a tour of Firefighter techniques in Australia. The best thing about this technique is that it uses all the cognitive skills of the children. They get the message through hearing and seeing, but even more importantly the message is embedded as they physically do and say the actions," says Dr. Doris Wild Helmering,psychotherapist and author in St. Louis, Missouri.

Bringing the Kit to life
Finding the right mat fabric was the hardest part" says Kathy Powell, the developer of the Kit. I had stacks of carpet samples all over my house. It was like the fable of the princess and the pea. One carpet was too hard, one was too soft, one was too heavy. There was one sample I was sure was perfect, I sent it to California for tests in the field and thats exactly where it ended up. It was too lightweight and when the Firefighters were teaching the children out in the school playground it was picked up by the wind and ended up in the field next door."    Finally finding the right fabric, it was full speed ahead.

About Matt our logo
You never know what hidden talents are all around you. When Powell and her family first started thinking about how to bring the Stop, Drop, Cover and Roll technique to life, they thought up the character, Matt. It was a word play on the largest component of the kit, the flat velcro mat. They wondered though, where do you find a cartoonist to create this Matt" character? I talked to friends about it and another horse owner friend said, Kathy, you already know a cartoonist. He was at your farm last week."" Powell couldnt imagine who this was, but it turns out that her horseshoer is a talented cartoonist!

The next time Rich Brockman, horseshoer arrived to work with the horses, he found himself at the kitchen table with a pencil and paper. After a few quick sketches, Matt was born.

There has been tremendous local support for this project. Neighbors have loaned their children for a mini-movie that appears on www.stopdropcoverandroll.com that was shot at the Warrenton Fire Protection District of Warren County, Missouri. A friend in North Carolina has built the web site. We were very fortunate to have a good neighbor with a forklift to unload our pallets of mats from the truck and trailer borrowed from yet another good neighbor," said Powell. I feel like Firehouse Number 1 in Warrenton is a second home. Our Fire Chief, Mike Owenby has supported this project every step of the way."

Asking the children to demonstrate and having them practice the Stop, Drop, Cover and Roll actions lets the children see the results. The children see the flames come off of them and they understand the lesson. They see these results and that reinforces their behavior when faced with an emergency. They will enjoy learning as a kind of game while internalizing a lifesaving technique. Mike Owenby, Fire Chief of Warrenton, Missouri is using the Kit. When children panic they will do what they have practiced, not necessarily what they have been told, and the Stop, Drop, Cover and Roll Kit allows them to do just that," says Chief Owenby.

Action photos available

Fire Statistics from www.thehartford.com and
http://www.burninstitute.org/fbpe/index.html

Contact Information: Kathy Powell, Manager
Stop, Drop and Roll L.L.C.
21131 Blackberry Ridge
Warrenton, MO 63383
Tel: 636-456-3160
Cell: 636-359-0142
email: kathy@stopdropcoverandroll.com
web site: http://www.stopdropcoverandroll.com
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