Wednesday MAY 1, 1997

BANGKOK POST  *OUTLOOK*

Features

What would happen if your house should catch fire when only your children are at home?

Ask your friends this question and chances are the answer will be along the lines of “Why bother worrying about it? It won’t happen to me…” or “ Don’t talk about fire .It bad luck.”

Ask a safety expert, however, and the response

will be very different.

“Such ignorance has been disasterous for our country,’’ said Kanathat Chantrsiri, director of the Fire and Rescue Service Center.( now change to be FARA Fire and Rescue Association ) “Safety awareness must be cultivated in order to prevent accidents.”

Kanathat: "We teach children these skills instead

of the adults because older people too often

take safety for granted."

The group is fostering such awareness with

training sessions, but not for adults as you might think.

Instead, the Bangkok-based NGO focuses its efforts on children, with programmes such as the “Young Firefight Camp”

The camp has been held three times since it was initiated in November 1996. for two days, some 35 boys and girls, aged nine to 12 , take past in the free training, which goes beyond

the standard “safety first.” Lectures; participants are actually trained to become members of fire-fighting crew.

“These kids learn what to do in case a fire brakes out, how to help themselves as well as others, how to practice first aid and how a fire engine and a fire house work,” explained  Kanathat , who is know to the children as “Uncle Tom”

Following the tragic 1993 Kader doll factory fire,  which resulted in the deaths of  hundreds of teenage workers (288), Kanathat concluded that there was an urgent need for a safety programme for young people-one that emphasized hands-on training.

At the young Fire-Fighter Camp, in order to pass the course and receive their certificates, he children must participate in a fire-fighting simulation.

Clad in fireproof jackets, rubber boot and helmets, boys and girls move through the drill, dousing small fires with extinguishers, finding their way though smoke and flames and than exiting via a fire escape.

“We teach children these skills in stead of the adults because older people too often take safety for granted.

Through young people, we can spread such knowledge to the public,” revealed Kanathat.

One parent, mother of three, Marasri Sri-buathong, agrees that the courses are beneficial.

“Now my children know much more about fire and how to prevent and fight them.  We have a fire extinguisher in our house, but I didn’t  know how to use it until my son taught me,"

she chuckled.

Concern for her children’s safety was why Marasri enrolled

them in the camp. A busy businesswoman, Marasri often

leaves her children, aged nine to 14, at home with a maid.

“How can I be sure that my kids will be safe if a fire breaks out? Rely on the maid? I can’t assume she will be able to safe my children.

“They have to be able to help themselves if I’m not there,” explained the mother.

Another Young Firefighter, Pakanai Ratanawijai, said that his mother is now saving money to buy a fire extinguisher- on his recommendation.

“I told my mom that it’s really necessary for our house.

We can’t afford to be careless,”said the 11-year-old Pakanai, who attended the camp earlier this year.

Recently the boy witnessed a real fire in a field near his house.

He did not extinguish it, though, because his father did not

allow him to.

“But I do know how to deal with fires,” he said proudly. “

First, we have to find the source of the fire. If it is too big, we should call the fire department or tell adult.”

Pakanai  plan on putting this knowledge to good use in the future.

“When I’m grown up, I will be a fireman and help people

myself,” he said.

*For more information about either the Young Firefighters or the Fire and Rescue Association FARA,

please contact Kanathat Chantrasiri on 02 928-0742 or 01 484-4838; or you can write him at

65/81 Airport Park Villa, Song Prapha Road, Thung Sigun, Don Muang, Bangkok 10210 Thailand