PUPILS at Roman Way First School were on call at a safety day organised by Royston firefighters. Please Sir – Safety in Royston is in its ninth year and sees firefighters visiting schools in Royston and Buntingford to show children the dangers of fire an

PUPILS at Roman Way First School were on call at a safety day organised by Royston firefighters.

Please Sir - Safety in Royston is in its ninth year and sees firefighters visiting schools in Royston and Buntingford to show children the dangers of fire and what to do if they are faced with one.

Royston Fire Station commander Rad Bristow said: "This is the first time I have seen the safety day in action.

"I am really impressed with the work of the crews, but also how good and receptive the children are.

"It is important for us to get out into the community. It gives us the chance to educate the children at a really young age.

A number of real life scenarios were set up for the children from Years 3 and 4 to try, including how to make a 999 call.

Firefighters explained how dangerous it was to make prank 999 calls and simulated an emergancy conversation.

Dave Rees explained the dangers of playing with matches or lighters.

The children were also asked to devise their own fire plan detailing how they would escape from a blaze.

Firefighters also showed pupils a demonstration of how easy and dangerous it was to start a chip pan fire.

Mel Usher, watch manager and organiser of the fire safety week, said: "We are not getting the amount of false calls that we used to because children are realising the consequences from an early age about how dangerous fire is.

"The scenarios we use change over the years to incorporate what the schools, children and fire service want.

"One school asked us to include first aid and so we now do some of that for the older children.

"We've had situations where children have rung us up and knew what to do because they had heard one of our talks."

All the children were given letters to take home, telling their parents what they had been learning, and offering free home safety checks.

Mr Bristow said: "Anyone who would like a free home safety check should get in touch."

# The number to call is 08005873347.