Volunteer Firefighters from the Center Moriches Fire Department spent the day at Our Lady Queen of Apostles School and the Clayton Huey Elementary School teaching the children of our community fire safety.

This year's theme was "Prevent Kitchen Fires !"

Fire Prevention Week 2013 focused on keeping homes safe from the leading causes of home fires.

Many families gather in the kitchen to spend time together, but it can be one of the most hazardous rooms in the house if you don't practice safe cooking behaviors. Cooking equipment, most often a stove or oven, is the leading cause of reported home fires and home fire injuries in the United States.

The leading cause of fires in the kitchen is from unattended cooking. Firefighter's stressed the importance of staying in the kitchen when you are cooking food. If you leave the kitchen for even a short period of time, turn off the stove.

Firefighters also spoke about ways to make your kitchen a safer place for your family, by keeping anything that can catch fire - potholders, oven mitts, dish towels, paper or plastic bags, food packaging, or curtains - away from your stovetop.
Firefighters also taught the students how to properly dial 911 to report an emergency.

Following the trophy presentations to the winners of the poster contest students were given tours of the fire apparatus that was on display at the school.

Later that week Firefighters met with children from the Starlight Children’s Center on Ocean Avenue, where they too had a chance to meet with firefighters and learn fire safety tips.

All residents are reminded to frequently discuss fire safety with their children and remember to test your smoke detectors once a month and change your batteries when you change your clocks.

The Center Moriches Fire Department would like to extend our sincere thanks to all the participants of our fire prevention poster contest for an outstanding job ! And to all of our Volunteer firefighters who donate their time each year to teach the children.