Pittsburgh, PA - If young Michael Odrey ever has to use a fire extinguisher at home, he's confident he can.
"You pull the pin out, then you squeeze the thing down and point it and spray it back and forth," Michael, 6, explained, motioning with his hands as if using an imaginary extinguisher.
Teaching youngsters like Michael, a New Kensington resident, how to use a fire extinguisher and how to react in emergencies was the goal of the Highlands Emergency Services Association safety fair in Harrison on Saturday.
The association's eight member fire companies, all of which serve Highlands School District communities, sponsored the event, along with the Alle-Kiski Health Foundation.
Michael attended the safety fair in the Heights Plaza Parking lot with his sister Rachel, 8, and their parents, Michael and Lori.
"I think it's important," Lori Odrey said.
"I think it's tremendous in making the kids and the community aware of what the fire departments have to offer," said Kevin Smetak of Freeport.
He brought his wife Erin and children Jack, 4, and Olivia ,2, to the event and said they enjoyed the fair, where they stopped by the Allegheny County 911 display.
"They got fingerprinted, they learned how to use the fire extinguisher and this (911) is very important for my son to know," Smetak said. "It would be better if more communities did these kinds of things."
While educating the public on everything from using fire extinguishers to giving the right information when making a 911 call is an important mission for HESA, it was not the only one for the fair. Another was being able reach at least 500 people with that message of education.
That was a condition for HESA securing a $25,000 grant from the Alle-Kiski Health Foundation. The money will be used to create a scholarship fund linked to a new for-credit course on firefighting for students at Highlands High School. HESA officials are hoping that the course will spur interest among young people in joining the fire service which has seen its ranks dwindle across the Alle-Kiski Valley over the years.
John D. Pastorek, president of the foundation, said that last year its board decided to focus on issuing challenge grants, where organizations awarded the grants must first show some results from the community.
"To show that they (community) buy into it and that they care enough to come and support it," Pastorek said. "What else is more important to home safety than these emergency workers?"
Pastorek escorted Anna Belle Beck, a major contributor to the scholarship grant, around the fair, introducing her to firefighters and students enrolled in the course taught by Mike Krzeminski, a member of Hilltop Hose Co. Beck, a former Freeport resident who now lives at the Concordia home in Butler County, said she wanted her donation -- made in her husband Francis' memory -- to help somebody.
She met students Matt Pavlik Jr. and Jessica Swager, both of Fawn, who are enrolled in the firefighting course.
"I think it's great," Beck said of the students' involvement. "I think it's really great."
Rick Jones of Pioneer Hose, Brackenridge, and Brad James of Eureka Fire Rescue in Tarentum, who coordinated the event, were concerned that they might not meet the required attendance level. The reason was the rain that pelted the region all-day Friday and into Saturday and forced the grounding of medical helicopters that were schedule to appear at the fair. But at about 1:45 p.m., the target was in sight.
"We're at 410 now and, with the weather we've had, I would have never thought we would have that many and we still have an hour left," James said.
But it did not take that long. Just before 2:30 p.m., HESA President Bill Rossey announced that the goal had been met.
"If the weather had been nicer, we would have at least doubled it," Rossey said later. |
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