Safety Town

Some 280 pre-kindergartners from Saline, Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and surrounding areas will learn comprehensive safety skills this summer at Safety Town at Houghton Elementary School in Saline.

The 4- and 5-year-olds will attend multimedia sessions and participate in hands-on activities two hours a day for nine days…

…The program, which has been conducted for 25 years, is a joint project of Saline Area Schools and the Saline Police Department.

At Tuesday’s session, students were taken in groups through the “Smoke House,” a trailer set up like a home with bedroom where a nontoxic liquid creates a harmless “smoke” in the space. The exercise is to teach children how to respond to a fire.

Children learn the importance of crawling on all fours. The bedroom door becomes hot - a signal that they must exit some other way. In this case, the exit route is down the ladder outside the bedroom window, with adults assisting the climb down.

Find out more about Safety Town here.