BURRILLVILLE – We are only a couple of weekends away from Christmas week and holiday season burn prevention should take center stage in all apartments and houses between now and the New Year.
Christmas trees and decorations are going up everywhere over the next few weeks and with it comes fire and burn hazards that need to be addressed in order to help keep children safe throughout the holiday season. Please keep kids away from decorative candles and away from lighters and matches. Kids should never be allowed to play with electrical cords, decorative lights and wall plugs or outlets. All of these items are hazardous to small children and could potentially cause severe burns and preventable injuries in the home.
The Fearless Dino Protector Squad firefighting dinosaurs with apparatus tails and cool firefighting dinosaur names have been keeping children fire safe and burn free since the early 1990s. What started with local fire departments adopting these popular cartoon characters as a creative educational and awareness community outreach fire safety and burn prevention campaign was then adopted by the Rhode Island State Fire Marshal’s Office and Hasbro Children’s Hospital, along with Boston Children’s Hospital and Shriners Burn Hospital in Boston, and continues to evolve and expand its reach across New England and nationwide. The Fearless Dino Protector Squad fire safety and burn prevention campaign received a standing ovation from child safety advocates, fire chiefs, firefighters and first responders that attended from across the USA at a fire safety conference hosted in Boston in the Shriners Burn Hospital auditorium, as well as receiving rave reviews by Safe Kids USA Coalition and national chapter directors at Prevcon events hosted in Washington, DC, and Baltimore, Md. a few years ago.
Please stay fire safe and help prevent unintentional burns involving children this holiday season.
Jim Weicherding is a Burrillville resident, and the founder and creator of an award-winning traffic safety effort Seasons of Safety. Weicherding contributes kids’ coloring cartoons, which can be printed and used to help parents discuss safety issues with their children. He has a long list of police officers and firefighters in his family and has worked with law enforcement and firefighters in a creative public safety capacity for more than two decades.
