Local children learn about fire safety

On 4th November, pupils at West Earlham Infant School in Norwich received a special visit from a member of the Briar Chemicals’ Fire Crew, to learn all about fire safety on Bonfire night.

Briar Chemicals has five full-time fire fighters and 40 part-time fire-fighters on its site and enjoyed this opportunity to pass on fire safety advice to local school children.

As part of their community relations programme, Briar visited the school to give practical health and safety advice to the children; teaching them how to have fun but also stay safe. Samuel Fisher, a full-time fire fighter at Briar Chemicals, addressed the pupils during their morning assembly and gave them some fire safety tips. “We feel it’s a very practical way for the children to learn the basics of how best to stay safe. There are unnecessary accidents at bonfire parties every year and if we can make a difference to help keep these children safe then it’s worthwhile”

After listening to the fire safety briefing and having their questions answered, the children were given a tour of one of the Briar site fire engines (the company has two appliances on its site). Some of the children had the opportunity to test their aim with the hose by being given the challenge of knocking objects off upturned buckets, which is always a highlight.

Susan Newton, operations manager at West Earlham Infant school, said:

“For us, its about having the key messages coming from a different source. It just reinforced what children are hearing in schools and in the community. I think its really important that children get messages from lots of different sources.”

Tim Green, Site Manager, said; “The children love to sit in the fire engine and try on the hats. We have made these visits to local schools before and it’s an effective way of presenting a very important message at this time of the year.”

Briar Chemicals supports arts projects, schools and the University within the local community and provides educational activities for local children to help make learning fun and interesting.