Students tour Lewes fire station
Some Lewes Elementary School students learned valuable lessons during Fire Prevention Week.
About 50 second-graders, along with parents and teachers, toured the Lewes fire station on Savannah Road Oct. 9. More classes were expected to visit during the week.
The annual field trip is an opportunity for kids to learn how firefighters do their jobs.
“Fire prevention week happens once a year, but fire prevention needs to happen every day,” said Bryan Pepper, a Lewes firefighter and the department’s treasurer. “We’re excited to do this every year for our Cape students. They love it.”
Firefighters demonstrated how they put on all their gear, from coat to helmet to oxygen mask.
They showed kids how to stop, drop and roll in case they are ever in a burning building.
EMTs let kids lay on a gurney that they use to transport patients in ambulances.
Kids got to go hands-on with a fire hose and spray an imaginary burning house.
Lastly, the students, parents and teachers piled into three fire trucks for a ride down Savannah Road.
“We’ve had a few years later join [the fire department]. They can join at 14,” Pepper said.
The Lewes Fire Department will host its fifth annual open house from 4 to 8 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 17, at Station 2, 32198 Janice Road, near the Nassau Bridge.
Bill Shull has been covering Lewes for the Cape Gazette since 2023. He comes to the world of print journalism after 40 years in TV news. Bill has worked in his hometown of Philadelphia, as well as Atlanta and Washington, D.C. He came to Lewes in 2014 to help launch WRDE-TV. Bill served as WRDE’s news director for more than eight years, working in Lewes and Milton. He is a 1986 graduate of Penn State University. Bill is an avid aviation and wildlife photographer, and a big Penn State football, Phillies and PGA Tour golf fan. Bill, his wife Jill and their rescue cat, Lucky, live in Rehoboth Beach.
