GAVC fire science students education Coal City Elementary kids on fire safety

Being a firefighter is about more than just fighting fires, and the Grundy Area Vocational Center fire science students got a crash course in the educational aspect of the job by teaching Coal City Elementary students how to prevent fires and what to do in event of a fire.

Fire science teacher Craig Mateski said the public-facing educational part of the job isn’t one many firefighters think about when deciding on joining the career.

“I enjoyed it,” said Caleb Phillips, one of the students. “I thought I was going to be nervous at first, but it was easy talking to the kids.”

Many of the fire science students felt the same way: The Coal City Elementary students were eager and willing to learn about fire safety. Mateski said he expected the kids would be more receptive to high school students, and that ended up being the case. There’s less of an age gap and in some cases, the kids were already familiar with the fire science students.

Lucas Pfizenmaier and his group, for example, shared their fire safety presentation to a group of kids that included his little sister.

“In general, going to the elementary school was nostalgic for me since I was there,” Pfizenmaier said. “I remember getting the same talk from the Coal City firefighters. Being able to present it to my sister was cool, and it was nice to actually teach her something instead of telling her to do my chores.”

Emilio Martinez said it was important to talk slower and use less advanced words, since there can often be some jargon in fire safety that kids might not know yet. Caycee Brown, another student, said kids had a few scenario based questions that they weren’t quite prepared to answer but there were other tips they shared that the kids didn’t know beforehand.

“We went over why it’s important to sleep with a door closed in case of fire, since if it breaks out, the door provides an extra layer of protection,” Ben Kaluza said. “Then go up to the door and feel the doorknob with the back of your hand. If it’s not, stay in the room because it’s dangerous to go outside. Go to the window and scream for help instead. But if it’s cool, we talk about the low-and-go method, meaning get low and crawl on your knees as quick as you can.”

Kaluza also added that it’s important for those escaping to keep their face covered, and to make sure the family has a designated meeting spot.

Keegan Reilly said it was also helpful for the kids’ education that they see what a firefighter looks like when they’re not in danger. That way if they are, it’s not the first time they’re seeing it and they won’t be scared.

Coal City Elementary Principal Taryn Trotter said the kids loved the presentation, and giving the kids the chance to see and hold some of the equipment was beneficial in getting them to understand what a firefighter does.

“We do fire drills throughout the school year and whatnot, so the students see the firemen but it was nice for them to actually interact with some students that are learning about it to go into the field some day,” Trotter said. “They’re kind of just like them.”

Mateski said 12 of his 14 Advanced Fire Science students are planning on going into some kind of career firefighting.