A college kid calling for Chinese food at 2 in the morning?
Yeah, that’s fire prevention, according to Seymour Deputy Fire Marshal Timm Willis.
Willis and volunteer firefighter John Hannon were at Seymour High School Wednesday to talk about the myriad of dangers connected to cooking.
Also present — a $10,000-plus digital stove that simulates an oven fire, complete with (non-toxic) smoke and digital flames. It gave three students and a teacher hands-on training Wednesday. They took turns using a fire extinguisher armed with digital lasers to put the “blaze” out.
Willis said cooking is the most common cause of house fires. He noted many of the students will be going off to college in a year or two — and college living areas are a common place where fires happen.
Willis is speaking from experience. Not that he personally set a dorm room on fire, but prior to working in Seymour, Willis worked as a security guard at Sacred Heart University.
He told the Seymour students about a college student who put a piece of chicken in a microwave and set the cook time for 45 minutes, apparently not realizing oven time and microwave time are not the same.
It sounds “dumb,” Willis said, but that’s often how fires start.
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Like a momentarily lapse in reason, such as when a person runs through a house with a burning pot, or fails to call 911 immediately for help.
Or a lapse in judgement, such as the drunken man who passes his out while food bakes in the oven.
“Picking up the phone and ordering Chinese at 2 in the morning is fire safety,” Willis said.
Four people have died in fire-related calls in Seymour in the last six years, Willis said.
While the oven fire simulator provided some experience, Willis said the best thing to do if a fire starts in a house is to get out.
“Run. Get out. Call for help. Everyone here has a cell phone now, or run to a neighbor’s. But most importantly, get out,” he said.
The fire simulator is from the state’s fire academy. Officials there purchased it using a federal grant and make it available to schools and fire departments for demonstrations.
Jeremy Weston, a 15-year-old junior, and Raquel Okonkwo, a 17-year-old senior, were among the Seymour students to practice on the oven, as did physical education/health teacher Paul O’Connor.
The class combined one of O’Connor’s classes and fellow teacher Nick Aprea’s class.