Fire and Emergency Whanganui holds education session for Putiki kaumātua

Residents of Putiki's kaumātua flats get Firewise advice from Fire and Emergency Whanganui staff. Photo / Bevan Conley

Fire and Emergency Whanganui staff are taking fire safety education to some of the most vulnerable in the community.

A session was held at Putiki Marae on Friday for occupants of the marae's kaumātua flats.

"Our kaumātua are one of our high risk groups so we wanted to do some Firewise education with them and they were really engaged," firefighter Jay Rickard said.

"If we educate our kaumātua then educate our tamariki, we hope that we can also get to their [kaumātua] children who are the parents of the tamariki. It's about community engagement and getting Firewise knowledge to them."

Five FENZ staff provided morning tea and talked to the Putiki kaumātua about the importance of having working smoke alarms and getting out and staying out of their home if there was a fire.

"We also told them about having one safe meeting place where you can have a roll call,"

Rickard said.

"We don't want someone going out the back and being safe then someone else going in to look for them. We talked about keeping themselves safe.

"We told them if their smoke alarm is beeping [because the battery is flat] they can ring us 24/7 and we'll come out. That's part of our service. Don't just take it down and have nothing.

"Working smoke alarms have made such a difference in the rate of fire deaths. They work. You can't smell smoke if you're asleep but when you hear a smoke alarm you've got three minutes to get out."

FENZ works with other agencies to help deaf and hard-of-hearing people access specialist smoke alarms that have extra features such as extra loud or lower pitch alarm sounds, flashing strobe lights or vibrating devices.

Rickard said she hoped the session at Putiki would be the first of many for at-risk groups.

"The more knowledge people have, the more lives we're going to save," she said.

"This is part and parcel of our role to help keep our community safe."

Anyone interested in a Firewise education session can contact Rickard at the Whanganui fire station, phone 348 0103.