by Angela Shelly

On October 23, 2017, Easterseals Gresh Center in Montgomery County got a very special visitor! October is Fire Safety month, so Lieutenant Eric Greiner brought his fire truck to school! Eric is the parent of two of our Friendship Academy students, Olivia and King. They were very excited to see their dad with his fire truck! All of our friends were so happy to learn about fire safety from a real fireman.

Lieutenant Eric introduced himself and showed our friends around the fire truck. They spotted the ladder, axe, hose, controls, and many other parts of the fire truck! Our friends discussed “stop, drop, and roll” with Lieutenant Eric and we learned that smoke rises, so in a fire, we should crawl on the floor, or get as low as we can. He read “Going to the Firehouse” by Mercer Mayer to all of our friends and explained all about how his firehouse is like the one in the Critter’s book. Lieutenant Eric’s fireman friend came out of the fire truck to help demonstrate how firemen wear their safety gear. Our friends learned all about the different parts of their safety gear and why they are important. Everyone got to high-five the geared-up fireman so that they knew he wasn’t someone to be afraid of, but someone to look for in an emergency!

When it was time for the firemen to leave, they got a call to go help put out a real fire! Lieutenant Eric turned on the siren as he left in the fire truck. It was very loud and exciting! All of our friends at Easterseals are very excited, because the fire company gave each child a very special plastic fire hat! We are so grateful to Lieutenant Eric Greiner and his fire company for visiting us and teaching us all about fire safety.