Wil Harrell knows exactly what to do.

Not only does he know his home address, the second-grader in Katherine Canaday’s class at Belmont Elementary School effortlessly rattled off the school address after questioning from Lieutenant Gordon Pearson of the Roanoke Rapids Fire Department.

After escorting the children from the smoke house, which helps children learn the proper way of exiting a burning building, they quickly did a head count and discovered one child was still inside.

Once this unaccounted for child was found, inside the smoke house talking to firefighter Michael Butts, Pearson had Harrell call 911.

The 911 feed was actually to firefighter Al Cooke, who was controlling the vapors of the smokehouse.

Children exit the smoke house.

“He said, ‘What is the problem?’ I said, ‘I have a fire in my house,’” Harrell quickly replied.

Pearson reinforced to the children that after leaving a smoke-filled house always stay in a designated meeting place.

Students, churches and civic organizations will hear this message throughout the month, as the fire department observes National Fire Prevention Week, which now usually extends through the end of the month.

The smoke house helps train the children for different scenarios, including bedroom, living room and kitchen fires.

“About every day we’re doing something,” Pearson said of the observance.

“It’s about prevention for the citizens we serve,” Butts said.

Butts talks to a child inside the smoke house.

Pearson said the children begin learning about fire prevention from the time they are in kindergarten to the time they leave elementary school.

The firefighters discuss the household appliances that can start fires, items like irons, hair curlers, space heaters and cooling fans as well candles and where they should be located. “We’re trying to teach prevention. This is a way to mitigate the things we do, giving them ideas of what to do and what not to do,” Pearson said.

For more information on fire prevention tips there are numerous websites, including the Public Broadcasting System site.

For more information on the fire department’s observance of the month, contact them at 252-533-2880.