Fire Departments of Enfield Assist 4th and 5th Grade Students in Hartford County Poster Contest

For 31 years, the Fire Departments of Enfield have teamed up with the elementary schools’ art department to help every 4th and 5th grade student enter the Connecticut Fair Plan’s Fire Prevention Everyone/Everyday poster contest.

            Students from communities throughout the state design and produce posters. The winners from each county are exhibited in locations throughout Connecticut. From these, one poster is chosen to promote fire prevention within the state.

            Ashley Woodson, 4th grade and Savanah Hulevitch, 5th grade, both students from Ms. Diane Derose’s Prudence Crandall School art class, are Enfield’s town winners. Their posters are now being judged at the Hartford County level.

The annual Fire Prevention Poster Contest is a cooperative effort of the office o the State Fire Marshal, Connecticut Department of Education, Connecticut Fire Marshal’s Association, Connecticut Fire Chief’s Association and the Connecticut FAIR Plan, which represents the Connecticut Insurance Industry.

For over 80 years, every U.S. President has issued a proclamation declaring a nationwide observance of Fire Prevention week in remembrance of the Great Chicago Fire of October 9, 1871 in which 300 people died and 100,000 were left homeless. Fire safety education is an important means of preventing injuries and death. The poster contest brings awareness and ways to prevent fires to children and their parents.