County receives grant for model ‘Hazard House’
The San Juan County Public Safety and Education Group was recently awarded a grant for $13,296 to purchase an interactive model house for fire and life safety education.

The local group includes emergency service representation from San Juan, Orcas, Lopez and Shaw Island fire departments, the Friday Harbor Fire Department, San Juan Island EMS, the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office and the San Juan County Fire Marshal’s Office. Those agencies will provide the other $699 needed to purchase the house.

The Hazard House, a portable simulator by Modeltech International, provides a wide variety of interactive features for teaching fire and life safety to all age groups from children to adults. The fire departments also plan to use the simulator to educate firefighters about fire hazards and fire behavior.

The house includes a wildfire curriculum, which can be used for the Firewise program. Firewise Communities USA is a community program designed to help homeowners protect themselves and their property from wildland fires before they start.

The grant was an award from Fire Prevention and Safety through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Only about 200 grants were awarded from nearly 3,000 submittals throughout the country.

The Public Safety and Education Group formed last year to coordinate and teach life safety programs countywide. Group representatives are Carolyn Hudson, Max Jones, Marty Clark, Brud Joslin, Susan Risser, Lainey Volk, Robin De La Zerda and Bob Low.

The group also recently acquired a fire extinguisher training prop. The new prop uses live fire and is fueled by propane. It provides a clean and quick method of teaching people how to use fire extinguishers. This will allow the group to provide fire extinguisher training more frequently.

The Hazard House and the fire extinguisher prop will be in use at the annual Safety Fair and Open House, the second Saturday in October.

EMS accepting applications for fall EMT course
San Juan Island EMS is accepting applications for the Fall 2008 Emergency Medical Technician course, which begins Sept. 3.

Requirements and application are available on www.SanJuanEMS.org. Completed applications are due no later than Aug. 20, 5 p.m., at 540 Spring St.

For more information, visit the Web site or e-mail training@sanjuanems.org.

— Submit Around Town items to rwalker@sanjuanjournal.com