Area fire companies, including those representing Lower Pottsgrove, gathered last Saturday at Home Depot in Pottstown for public activities to commemorate Fire Prevention Week

SANATOGA PA – It’s National Fire Prevention Week, and that means members of Lower Pottsgrove’s two all-volunteer fire companies – Sanatoga and Ringing Hill – will be out visiting local school children this week to teach them about and encourage fire safety, township Fire Marshal Lew Babel told the Board of Commissioners.

Visits are planned for daycare, public and private schools alike, he said.

This year’s observance, conducted internationally by the National Fire Protection Association, began Sunday (Oct. 9, 2011) and continues through Saturday (Oct. 15). It was founded in 1925 to commemorate the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which burned about four square miles of that city and killed hundreds of people.

Although the Chicago conflagration is ancient history to most students with whom firefighters will meet, the message they’ll bring is timely, Babel noted. Fire safety research has changed many of the lessons the Baby Boomer generation learned about dealing with flames and keeping out of harm’s way; teaching the new techniques top the companies’ agendas.

For several years Fire Prevention Week has kicked off locally with day-long activities in the parking lot of Home Depot, Armand Hammer Boulevard, Pottstown PA. It was held last Saturday (Oct. 1) and was heavily attended and the township was well represented, Babel reported. He also submitted to the board fire company service statistics for August 2011:

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Oct. 3):

• Local Fire Crews In Schools This Week, Teaching Safety
• Township Bends To Give Garbage Bidders Choices
• The Problems At Pruss Hill Lurk Beneath Its Bridge
• Police Detail At Limerick Hearings Cost $1,468
• Pruss Hill Bridge Might Re-Open With Weight Limit

Photo by Robert Ward from the Sanatoga Fire Company