Volunteer Fire Department to Host Open House Saturday

Release:

The Leesburg Volunteer Fire Company will hold their annual Fire Prevention Open House on Saturday, October 3 from 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. at Fire Station 20, located at 61 Plaza Street, NE. There will be a variety of educational fire safety activities, fire equipment and apparatus will be on display and there will be fun for the whole family. Kicking off National Fire Prevention week from October 4-10, this event will promote the 2015 theme, “Hear the Beep Where You Sleep – Every Bedroom Needs a Working Smoke Alarm!”

The open house will also feature tours of the station, a bounce house, the opportunity to try on fire gear, exciting live demonstrations and a visit by Sparky the Fire Dog. A medivac helicopter is scheduled to arrive for display.

“We are pleased to open Station 20 to the community and offer this opportunity for members of the community to tour the station, meet members of the Leesburg Volunteer Fire Company team and view safety and rescue demonstrations,” said LVFC Chief Jim Cook, “This a great opportunity to provide education to the public about fire safety, smoke alarms and emergency preparedness.”

The key message of this year’s Fire Prevention Week campaign, October 4-10, is to install smoke alarms in every bedroom, outside each separate sleeping area and on every level of your home, including the basement. Larger homes may need more alarms. New, light-weight building materials allow fires to spread quickly, leaving little time to escape. Working smoke detectors and a practiced escape plan are critical to getting out of a fire alive.

In 1920, President Woodrow Wilson issued the first National Fire Prevention Day proclamation, and since 1922, Fire Prevention Week has been observed on the Sunday through Saturday period in which October 9 falls. According to the National Archives and Records Administration’s Library Information Center, Fire Prevention Week is the longest running public health and safety observance on record. The President of the United States has signed a proclamation proclaiming a national observance during that week every year since 1925. (Reproduced from NFPA’s Fire Prevention Week website, www.firepreventionweek.org. © 2015 NFPA.)