Students celebrate fire safety

A Monte Vista Elementary student was named Glendale's honorary junior fire chief last Friday and two other students received honorary assistant and deputy chief positions in the culmination of the Glendale Fire Department's 50th annual Junior Firefighter Program.

As part of a citywide essay contest for fifth-graders at public and private schools, Monte Vista student Tinashe Kachinqwe's winning piece on how she as a junior firefighter can make her family safer at home won her the post of honorary chief. At a celebration in Verdugo Park to mark the end of the program, in which children learn how to prevent and safely extinguish fires, Kachinqwe and Glenoaks Elementary School's McKenzie Wilson, the honorary assistant fire chief, were presented with plaques and brand-new bicycles. Genoveva Paz, of Edison Elementary School, was named honorary deputy fire chief and received a plaque and a stereo system.

Throughout the school year, about 2,500 Glendale fifth-graders learned about fire prevention strategies and developed fire escape plans for their homes.

Asked what she thought her daughter learned from the program, Toni Roberts said: "How about what the whole family learned?"

At the family's Glendale home, bi-monthly fire drills are now a regular routine, Roberts said. Amanda Roberts, 11, now knows where the home's smoke detectors and fire extinguishers are and knows to exercise greater caution when around flames, Roberts said.

"They are very cautious in the kitchen," Roberts said. "It's a good habit to get into," adding that she was impressed by the size and scope of a 40-page fire prevention workbook her daughter completed for the program.

At Friday's celebration, some 260 students who received the highest scores in their class on a fire prevention test were treated to a raffle and barbecue. Prizes included skateboards, bicycle helmets, basketballs, stereos and water guns, all provided by the Glendale Firemen's Club and the Independent Insurance Agents of Glendale, Pasadena and Burbank.