Preschool Class Helps Launch Spanish Fire Safety Program

Students at First Street Elementary School in Boyle Heights helped launch a Spanish-language fire prevention curriculum Tuesday, the first formal fire safety course in the country designed for Spanish-speaking preschoolers.

Fire officials said there is a great need for multilingual education about fire prevention, especially for young children.

“When you go to a fire and find out there’s a language barrier and a simple translation would have prevented injury or death, that’s something that just hurts your spirit and soul,’ said fire Inspector Martin Garza.

Decked out in red plastic firefighter hats, the preschoolers in Leticia Preciado’s class demonstrated the songs they learned in the last 12 weeks as part of Mis primeros pasos en prevencion contra incendios (My First Steps to Prevent Fires). They were joined by the Latino folk group Sol y Canto, which wrote eight fire safety songs for the curriculum.

The children danced and sang along with the music for the audience, which included Mayor Richard Riordan, local fire officials and the rest of the 700 students at the school.

Sponsored by the nonprofit National Fire Protection Assn., the curriculum was designed after Los Angeles fire officials using English-language fire safety materials told the group there was a need for a program in Spanish.

First Street preschoolers were the first to use the entire curriculum, a program school officials said dramatically improved the children’s knowledge of fire safety.

On Monday, the students demonstrated some of the songs to members of the first U.S. Latino Fire Safety Summit, who will take the curriculum back to their communities.

Association officials said they are donating 1,000 copies of the curriculum to the Los Angeles City Fire Department to distribute at local schools. The group will also give every family at First Street a smoke detector.