By Anna Skinner
In many towns and cities, it’s known as fire prevention week. In Zionsville, October is better known as fire prevention month.
The Zionsville Fire Dept. has organized several events in October to provide education about fire safety. Kicking off the month will be a pancake breakfast on Oct. 3, which is celebrating its 34th anniversary.
“It’s a fire department tradition, and ZFD is 85 this year,” said Janice VanGorder, president of ZFD support services. “We have done it the first Saturday of October for as long as anybody can remember.”
VanGorder said that attendance has increased every year, with about 1,200 people last year bringing in about $6,000.
Pancake breakfasts will be served from 6 to 11 a.m. at Station 91, 100 North Ford Rd. In honor of ZFD turning 85, the 85th person to attend will get in free. Tickets cost $8.50 for adults, $4.50 for children.
The pancake breakfast isn’t ZFD’s only event to help educate the public. ZFD Lt. Scott Peters said that throughout the month of October firefighters will travel to grade schools and teach fire safety.
“For preschool and kindergarten, we do an interactive program where the kids are learning how to crawl out of a house if it is filled with smoke,” Peters said. “We teach them how to not be scared of a fireman who’s all dressed up in his fire gear. We practice stop, drop and roll.”
For first and second graders, the firefighters teach the kids about developing an escape plan for their house and take them to a fire trailer where they can practice what to say if they need to dial 9-1-1.
