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Published Monday, October 13, 2008 in Local

Fire safety program targets students in unincorporated South Fulton

By Amy Riley

The Times-Herald

The first safety training program that 9-year-old Dajanek Henderson attended at Seaborn Lee Elementary School the week of Sept. 29 may have saved her life, and the lives of her brothers, when their home on Little Fawn Road burned the night of Oct. 1.

The coincidence is not lost on her mom, her teachers at Seaborn Lee, or on Keith Padgett, chief fire marshal for Fulton County, who also notes that Dajanek's training happened to take place during National Fire Safety Week.

"What we're doing with this new fire safety training program is specifically targeting elementary schools in our unincorporated service areas," said Padgett. "We teach children ages pre-K through fifth grade because we feel this is the best way to make an impact."

"We feel like a student who receives fire safety over a period of years, adjusted in content and manner of delivery for the age of the child, will have a better chance of comprehending the information and being able to act on it in the event of an actual fire," said Padgett.

That certainly seems to have worked for Dajanek Henderson, who remembered the instruction she received in third grade but benefited from the fire safety house experience, which taught her how to minimize her exposure to smoke while she sought an exit route from her own burning house.

"First they showed us a video about fire safety on Monday," said Dajanek. "A boy was cooking French fries when a grease fire started. He had to wake his sister and grandfather so they could all get out of the house."

"The next day, they brought in the fire safety house," said Dajanek. "It fills up with smoke, and they teach you how to close your eyes and find your way out."

When Dajanek's friends and teachers learned of her bravery, they were proud and shaken.

"I was so proud of her, especially considering what she had gone through when she was younger," said Fawn Goodwin, a kindergarten teacher at Seaborn Lee Elementary and Dajanek's cheerleading sponsor. Dajanek was badly burned when she was 5 when she pulled a pot of boiling water down on herself . She underwent a lengthy recovery, and fear of being burned is always at the back of Dajanek's mind.

"She's come a long way," said Goodwin, "and her mom, Dawn, is such a wonderful help to our cheerleading program. We are just so thankful that they're all OK, and we want to do what we can to help Dajanek's family now."

Dajanek's mom agrees.

"For her to have done what she did to save her brothers, knowing how afraid she must have been of fire, having been badly burned once herself, is just amazing," said Dawn Henderson.

"In the past, teachers would contact us to come in to the schools to teach fire safety," said Padgett. "Now we target them. We sought out the principals of all 13 elementary schools in unincorporated South Fulton County and asked for two weeks to conduct training at each school," he added. "It's a much more thorough and systematic approach."

Students learn about Exit Drills in the Home (EDITH) and take materials to their parents, who are instructed to draw exit plans together and return copies to the school.

"Students also take home information that encourage parents and guardians to regularly check and change batteries in smoke detectors and replace smoke detectors every 10 years," said Padgett. Smoke detectors should be tested once a month by pushing the button to make sure the alarm activates. New detectors have 10-year lithium batteries, but detectors that operate off of 9-volt batteries need to have batteries changed regularly.

"Recent statistics suggest that we now have more inoperable smoke detectors than ever before in American homes," said Padgett. "So routine checks and battery replacement are critical to reversing that trend."

Some of the newer models actually have voice recorders that allow parents to record their own voices, urging children to wake up, get out of the house, and meet them at the designated "safe" area outlined on their EDITH plan.

"You can also go and buy additional detectors, for around $10 each, and mount them right outside bedroom doors," to ensure that sleeping family members are awakened by the sound of the alarm. "I can't stress this enough," said Padgett.

"In so many cases, we find that family's have smoke detectors, but they didn't work, or didn't wake them up in time, and people die in their beds from smoke inhalation."

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