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‘Protect your family from fire’

Fire Prevention Week, Oct. 9-15
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Submit entry forms for Fire Chief for a Day contest at Fire Hall No. 1 on Dewdney Trunk Road.

Celebrate Fire Prevention Week with  Fire Hall No. 1 in Maple Ridge.

The theme for Fire Prevention Week, Oct. 9-15, this year is “Protect Your Family From Fire.”

As part of the week, the Maple Ridge Fire Department will hold open houses at fire halls  No.  1 and 3, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.  on Saturday, Oct. 15.

Other local events:

• Take an online quiz about fire safety: www.firepreventionweek.org.  Look under “latest news” to find the quiz.  The link for “Kids and Families” has numerous activities for families to do together to help keep their homes safe.

• Panago Pizza Partnership – each evening during Fire Prevention Week, firefighters will accompany a Panago delivery driver on randomly selected orders between 6–9 p.m.

If all of the customer’s smoke alarms are working and they can demonstrate a family escape plan, their Panago order will be free.

If not, after they pay for their Panago order, the firefighters will install a working smoke alarm for them and provide information about family escape planning.

• Fire Chief for a Day/Laptop Computer Contest – all students in Kindergarten through Grade 3 will receive a booklet with activities to teach them about preventing home fires and escape-planning with their family.  Firefighters  will deliver them to all elementary schools in Maple Ridge.

Once activities are completed, teachers will give them an entry form to take home for a parent’s signature and then be submitted to enter them in a draw for a laptop computer.

From the same entry forms, the Maple Ridge Fire Department selects one boy and one girl to be Fire Chief for a Day.  Entries can be submitted to the school office or to Fire Hall No. 1. Contest closes Oct. 21, 2011.

• Recycle smoke and carbon monoxide alarms – AlarmRecycle is a recycling program for used or expired smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) alarms.

As of Oct. 1, B.C. residents can drop off their smoke and CO alarms for recycling at AlarmRecycle drop-off locations across the province.

Locally, the Ridge Meadows Recycling Depot (10092 – 236 Street) is a designated drop off location

(http://www.productcare.org/Smoke-Alarms).

• Tips for protecting your home and family from fire:

• Stay in the kitchen while you are frying, grilling, or broiling food. If you leave the kitchen for even a short period of time, turn off the stove.

• Keep anything that can burn at least one metre away from heating equipment, like the furnace, fireplace, wood stove, or portable space heater.

• Have a one-metre “kid-free zone” around open fires and space heaters.

• Replace or repair damaged or loose electrical cords.

• If you smoke, smoke outside and use deep, wide ashtrays on a sturdy table.

• Blow out all candles when you leave the room or go to bed. Avoid the use of candles in the bedroom and other areas where people may fall asleep.