To book a field trip to the Survive Alive House please contact Ramona Santiago at 385-3240 or by email email@example.com
|The Milwaukee Fire Education Center’s Survive Alive House is located at 2059 S. 20th Street. The House opened its doors in 1992, and each year over 13,000 Milwaukee children visit it to learn how to survive in the event of an actual home fire.|
The Survive Alive House uses the Be Sure to Be Safe (besafeplan.htm) program to teach the safe way to escape from a burning building. The Milwaukee Fire Department, Milwaukee Public Schools Division of Recreation and Community Services operate the House jointly. MFD staff and MPS work together to operate the program. Capital improvements and certain operating expenses are provided by donations to The Foundation For The Milwaukee Fire Education Center.
Between 1987 and 1991, 68 children lost their lives in fires. Seventeen of those children were between the ages 7 and 17. After opening its doors in 1992, the number of fire fatalities for the target age group dropped dramatically. Continuing fire safety education is essential to eliminating all fire fatalities.
Milwaukee fire chief credits education of youth as main factor.
WITI-TV, MILWAUKEE —
In 2010, the number of related deaths reached and all-time low. It's a statistic the Milwaukee Fire Department is feeling pretty good about.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett stopped by the downtown fire station to shake hands with his city's firefighters. He says, "The City of Milwaukee Fire Department keeps statistics back for 53 years, and last year we had three fire deaths in the City of Milwaukee."
City officials agree that there are still too many fire deaths, because all three were in homes without working smoke detectors.
Fire Chief Mark Rohlfing says his department installed over a thousand smoke detectors last year. He credits that for the record low, but also the education of kids like Alysia Leach.
After being alerted by her six-year-old sister who saw smoke in the house, Alysia Leach safely evacuated six siblings. The nine-year-old Milwaukee girl says she learned what to do after attending a Milwaukee Fire Training Program.
The Survive Alive House teaches kids how to escape a burning building. Chief Rohlfing believes the Survive Alive House is proving to be a life saving experience, and not just for the kids. He says, "We can tell adults a lot about fire safety, bot sometimes they don't listen to us so well. But they do a really good job of listening to their children."
Chief Rohlfing says the number of house fires in Milwaukee actually went up in 2010. He says education, and a working smoke detector can save lives.
On January 3, 2011, Alysia Leach knew what to do when the dryer in her home caught on fire. While examining the damage from the fire, Alysia's mother Michelle McGee began to wonder how her little girl knew what to do. The child says she knew what to do, because she went to Survive Alive. Milwaukee's Survive Alive House is where groups of children are taught the basics of fire safety in hopes that they'll be able to use the information to stay safe.
Click the video link to watch her story.
Alysia Leach, US Grant Elementary School