Children and their families will learn all about how to stay safe with Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service during Child Safety Week.
Fire crews from across the county are joining forces with health experts to educate young people at a series of events from June 6 to 12.
They will be in Oswestry Town Centre on market day on June 8 with the brigade’s Outreach vehicle to show safety films and give presentations to shoppers and their families and in Telford Shopping Centre near Primark from 9am to 5pm on June 9 and 10.
Joyce Barrow, a member of Shropshire and Wrekin Fire Authority, is the “member champion” supporting the event.
“Preventing deaths and serious injury from accidents lies at the heart of Child Safety Week which is an important event that we always support,” said Joyce, who represents St Oswald on Shropshire Council.
“Families can take simple steps to protect themselves from the devastation caused by fire by testing smoke alarms weekly and teaching children about fire safety. Put matches and candles out of reach and tell children to get out, stay out and call 999 if there is a fire.”
Turn off technology is the theme of this year’s Child Safety Week campaign which includes information on the increasing danger of button batteries which have led to the deaths of children suffering internal burns after swallowing them.
Mums and grandmothers will also be warned to keep their handbags containing medicines away from young children after a rise in the number of youngsters who have been poisoned.
“The aim of the week is to reduce the number of accidental injuries to children and young people by making their environment a safer place,” said Charlie Cartwright, a Vulnerable Person’s Officer with Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service, who also works to educate youngsters in fire safety.
Lindsay MacHardy, Public Health Lead for Children and Young People at Shropshire Council, said that accidents can happen “in an instant.”
“The Child Safety Week messages help put accident prevention into a context that families can relate to and we hope that families will find the Fire and Rescue Service outreach days informative as well as interesting.”
Councillor Hilda Rhodes, Telford & Wrekin Council’s cabinet member for Public Protection, Safety and Enforcement, said: “Keeping our children safe is an absolute priority and Child Safety Week helps raise awareness of the hazards our young people face and how they can be avoided.
“The events in Telford Shopping Centre on June 9 and 10 are an ideal opportunity to get those messages across to families as they shop.”
Child Safety Week is run by the Child Action Prevention Trust to raise awareness of the risks of child accidents and how they can be prevented.
The prevention team from Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service will also teach important fire safety skills to about 4,000 schoolchildren at the annual Crucial Crew event in Nesscliffe for two weeks starting on June 6. They will be in the Bridgnorth area at Oldbury Wells School grounds for a week, at AFC Telford for three weeks in June and July and in Shawbury in October.
Emergency services link with volunteers at Crucial Crew to educate year 6 pupils with real life scenarios to teach them about personal safety, how to react in dangerous situations, crime prevention, foster good citizenship and to know what to do in an emergency.
Action packed displays are put on for the young people at the events which start with a series of day long exercises including how to escape from a kitchen when the smoke alarm goes off in the “smoke tent.”
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