Fire lessons ignited at Little Forest Centre
Little Forest Centre lives up to its safety theme during a special visit from the fire department.
Little Forest Centre has always placed a strong emphasis on fire and safety in its school activities. However, the school did not see it coming at all when it was struck by tragedy in 2022, when a fire broke out and engulfed the school’s building.
The incident occurred just two weeks after the school had a special visit from the Lonehill Fire Department to demonstrate the lessons about fire and safety to the learners.
Load-shedding was the cause of the fire, according to the school principal, Kate More, as an electric fuse melted in the kitchen.
Despite the setback, the Little Forest community rallied together and found hope in rebuilding their beloved school.
On March 15, the Lonehill Fire Department visited the school for another practical class about personal safety. More said this was an honour to their theme of the week.
More explains the idea behind it. “We try to expose our learners to functional aspects of the theme as our learners have special needs. They often require concrete and novel experiences to generalise and consolidate learning of information. We have a very special relationship with the Lonehill Fire Department as they have been to visit us on previous occasions, as well as helping us in a real-life situation when our school burned down in 2022. Our situation was personal to them as they had visited us two weeks before the fire.”
She said the highlight of the day was when the learners were rewarded with an opportunity of getting to sit in the fire trucks as well as touch and interact with the equipment.
The firemen even made an effort to facilitate one of their wheelchair users to get in the fire truck which was the cherry on top for More.
“We learned about fire safety and what we should do in an emergency as well as how the firemen help us in these situations. We had also had a fire evacuation drill practice the day before, so generally, a good round-off to fire safety for our most vulnerable population of children.”
Related article: Lonehill firefighters educate young Glenferness learners on the importance of knowing basic fire safety
