Fire Education for Peoria Schools 

Teachers and Administrators 

The Peoria Fire Department is dedicated to promoting safety education in Peoria schools. During the 2009-10 school year, the Fire Department visited Peoria classrooms and educated thousands of Peoria’s children.

We look forward to expanding this program in the 10-11 school year by getting even more schools and classrooms involved. Below is a list of the types of education programs we offer. For more information or to schedule a visit please contact community education specialist Tim Eiden at 623-773-7919.

Risk Watch 
All Peoria schools have a copy of the Risk Watch program. It was developed by the National Fire Protection Association and is aligned with the state standards. When implemented fully, the curriculum follows children from kindergarten through 6th grade with each year reinforcing and expanding upon safety concepts. The curriculum covers topics like water safety, fire safety, gun safety, poison safety and other topics. Each lesson can be done in an hour or less and is easy to follow and implement.

Fire Pals 
Fire Pals are an important and fun component to the Risk Watch program. In order to reinforce the safety message in the Risk Watch lessons, a Peoria firefighter will come out and give a presentation at your school. Fire Pals talk about safety, the role of firefighters and often bring fun gear and give tours of the trucks. These presentations are a great way to reinforce a school’s safety message.

Classroom Visits
The firefighters are available to teach in classrooms and at assemblies. We can discuss fire safety, water safety, bike safety, motor vehicle safety and even read to the kids. We also offer classes for parents and parent groups. Please don’t hesitate to invite us to speak to your students. 

Juvenile Firesetter Intervention
If you have a student that was caught with matches, lighters or starting a fire please refer them to the juvenile firesetter intervention program. The fire department has specialists trained by FEMA to deal with students caught playing with fire. We also have a burn injury prevention program to help prevent fire play. This program is offered to 8th graders. 

Smoke Trailer
Through a FEMA grant, the Peoria Fire Department purchased a mobile fire safety classroom that we can bring to schools and events. The 39-foot length mobile classroom is used to instruct its audience on conducting home fire safety walkthroughs, planning and practicing home escape routes, use of smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, sprinkler systems and proper use of the 9-1-1 system. The fire safety trailer teaches kids how to evacuate their home in case of fire. It is available for school lessons, fairs and other events. This year, a student utilized the lessons learned in the safety trailer to successfully evacuate his house during a fire. This tool can make a difference

Special Events
Whenever possible, the Fire Department attends special events held by the schools. Many schools have held programs to honor firefighter or invited them as special guests. This is a great way for the firefighters to get to know your school visa versa.

Continuous Chest Compression (CCC) CPR
This new version of hands only CPR removes the need for mouth to mouth breathing, is easier to learn and, in many cases, is more effective than traditional CPR. Our goal is to teach every 5-8th grader how to save a life. This class can be taught in one hour, taking less time away from academics. 

CPR
Though this class was only offered at one school this year, the Fire Department is looking to expand this program. This year, CPR was taught at Peoria Elementary to a sixth grade class. In the upcoming year, we will be looking for more classrooms interested in participating in CPR training.

Booster Seat and Seat Belt Awareness
Take a walk out to the drop off area at your school, what you see may be alarming. Less than 50% of 1st graders and 20 % of 2nd graders are in booster seats (100% should be).  Let’s work together to educate children and families on proper use of boosters and child seats for younger children and the importance of seatbelts for all children. The fire department has free seats available for families in need.

Presentations and Assemblies 
The fire department can provide a guest speaker for safety presentations and assemblies. We can specifically target a presentation to your audience and age group. These presentations can be done at any grade level. Though much safety education is done at the elementary level, there is a still a need thought middle school and high school as well. Topics include, fire safety, water safety, bike and pedestrian safety, driving safety and many others.

If you are interested in bringing any of these programs to your classroom, school, or would like more information, please contact Tim Eiden at 623-773-7919 or tim.eiden@peoriaaz.gov.  Just remember to schedule us far in advance in case there are multiple events on the same day. Fall festivals usually fill up fast because they are all in the same timeframe.