By By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Editor
Four female students at John Small Elementary School in Washington were removed from classrooms or the cafeteria on stretchers Monday.
Don’t worry. They were not sick or injured. The stretcher rides and visits by Sparky the fire dog were part of their reward for submitting winning entries in the Washington Fire-Rescue-EMS-Inspections Department’s Great Escape contest held during October, which is Fire Prevention Month. The students develop EDITH plans. EDITH stands for exit drills in the home.
Fourth-grade students Kandy Whitehurst and Amber Alligood and fifth-grade students Katherine Lynch and Karley Little were selected as contest winners. Students were asked to draw floor plans of their homes. The drawings had to show all rooms, hallways, windows, door and exits. They also had to show locations of smoke detectors and fire extinguishers. The drawing also had to show an outside meeting place for family members to use in case of a fire.
Division Chief Jasper Hardison said students at the school were provided graph paper on which to draw their plans. Hardison supervised the transport of the students from the school to the headquarters fire station in downtown Washington. Students were transported on a stretcher from their classroom or cafeteria to a fire engine waiting for them outside the school. A caravan that included the fire engine, ambulance and other vehicles made its way to the fire station.
During a pizza lunch for the students, some of their family members and others, Hardison discussed the importance of a family having an escape plan and practicing exit drills from a house based on those plans.
The four students were presented with certificates to recognize their outstanding work on the project.
Pizza Inn donated pizzas for the party. Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Washington donated sodas.