Many sixth-grade students walked away from school last week for the summer with some valuable information about wildfire safety from a curriculum sparked by the Butte County Fire Safe Council that is starting to catch on in other counties.
About 360 Ridge students each year are exposed to the program that tries to teach them about what to do before, during and after wildfires. But much like a wildfire, the program is spreading into other areas of the county including Forest Ranch and other fire-prone communities. It's also made its way into Lassen County and Southern California where educators have adopted the pilot program and made it their own.
The five, one-hour lesson curriculum is the first of its type in the nation, kindled in Paradise by the fire safe council in 2005. Most teachers teach the class prior to summer vacation, Butte fire safe council director Calli-Jane Burch said. Sixth grade is a good time to teach the lessons because at that age they're old enough to make a real difference and have already learned about fire safety in the home through firefighter-taught lessons including stop, drop and roll. Paradise Intermediate School sixth-grade teacher Greg Holman agreed that children are captivated by the program since he's been teaching it, especially since the Humboldt Fire in June 2008.
"They're really engaged and they can see the relevance," he said. "I try to stress they're old enough to the be the calm, head of the house and say 'we need to evacuate or if the power's out go to the car to listen to the radio.'"
The class was always effective, but the Humboldt Fire had an effect on people, he said.
"The students do feel a sense of empowerment - it's a really good program but it really became more relevant after the Humboldt Fire," he said. "They realize it's not something that may happen but it will happen."
While most prefer to teach the material prior to fire season, school starts again after summer vacation in August with plenty of fire season left, Holman, a Durham Fire volunteer of 20 years said.
"It's a great way to start the school year," he said of the visually interesting curriculum.
Holman also commended the fire safe council for developing such a strong program and listening to his feedback and making annual adjustments.
Burch said a team developed the curriculum and was truly amazing how comprehensive the material was.
"It's really custom and really thorough," she said. "To me it would be great for adults too."
The program's coordinator, Anna Stephens a retired teacher with 37 years' experience now living on the Ridge, said she helped design the program in 2004 and makes annual upgrades to the curriculum.
"The whole idea is that California foothills and especially in Butte County are historically, currently and in the future are in danger of wildfire," she said.
One of the first lessons is on the geography of where the students live, taking into account the vegetation, topography and weather of the Ridge. Students also learn about the Wildland Urban Interface or WUI. Next they learn about the fire triangle - that fire needs heat, fuel and oxygen to burn and that if any one of the three is removed a fire cannot survive. Students also learn about sources of fire are mainly lightning and people, Stephens said.
"It's jam-packed," she said of the course.
Students' second lesson is about reducing risk and the empowerment of clearing defensible space and taking fire prevention measures at home including fire-wise plants and cleaning gutters and wood pile placement. Also, teachers teach students about fire ladders and how to disrupt the chain of a fire climbing plants from the ground to the tops of trees.
Finally, the students learn about doing the right thing at the right time by taking precautions before fire season, not mowing brush on hot windy days which can actually start fires, Stephens said. The third day is about how agencies work together during a fire including local governments, volunteers and firefighters. Also evacuation routes are taught and the career path to becoming a firefighter is talked about.
Day four covers a family plan to survival during a wildfire. Students work with their parents to gather a list of emergency telephone numbers and lists of shelters.
The fifth day's lesson revisits all the topics of the course with the students acting in skits and teaching their peers about a specific point of fire safety, Stephens said.
"It's fun to be a part of it and to see these really enthusiastic teachers," she said.
The program is supported by community donations and grant funding from Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Wal-Mart and a National Fire Plan grant from the Bureau of Land Management of the California Fire Safe Council.
Donations for the program are accepted at 767 Birch St. Paradise, CA. For more information please visit www.thenet411.net or call 877-0984.