JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- A group of people quietly watched while a kitchen fire spread from inside an oven to the stove top and on to a nearby trash can.
The reaction was normal because they were safe inside the Joint Base Lewis-McChord smoke trailer, learning what to do in the event of a kitchen fire.
The smoke trailer, a fire simulator, was part of the annual JBLM Fire Safety Fair held Saturday in the MWR tent on Lewis Main.
The fair began as a way to provide training to military families while also presenting a public education forum to celebrate the end of National Fire Prevention Week, said Don Lane, JBLM chief fire inspector.
"Families can enjoy a hot dog and have the kids entertained as well as educated about fire prevention," Lane said.
Over the past five years, the fair has outgrown two smaller venues and has seen a significant increase in attendance. This year, volunteers from the 4th Squadron, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment helped with set-up and tear-down of the event, with help from the Boy Scouts and the McChord Field Civil Air Patrol. According to Lane, JBLM Fire and Emergency Services, along with Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation, purchased 3,500 hot dogs and 27 gallons of chili for the event.
But the event wasn't about the free food and giveaways. Spc. Brian Elkin, 17th Fires Brigade, his wife Tara, and children, Brendan, 5 and Baileigh, 1, were there to acquire tools to teach their kids basic fire safety.
"It's good to immerse the emergency systems on JBLM into the community so everyone knows what's out there," Brian said.
The smoke trailer included a bedroom scenario to teach children to fight their urge to open the bedroom door during a house fire.
"The biggest lesson is to not open the door," said John Koerber, JBLM fire inspector. "Kids should turn on the lights to see if there's smoke, and if there is smoke coming from under the door, they should take a blanket or whatever they can find and put it at the base of the door to block the smoke."
Koerber demonstrated touching the bedroom door with the back of his hand instead of the palm, to see if it's hot. Children learned to move close to a window and wait for a fireman or other adult to help them out of the house.
"A big problem for parents comes in two-story homes. A lot of parents don't want to teach their kids to climb out the window," Koerber said. "But you do want to get to the point where the window is at least accessible."
The 2012 National Fire Prevention Week theme is "Have Two Ways Out," and Koerber stressed the importance to families of fire safety plans that include designated outdoor meeting areas if they get separated.
After emerging from the smoke trailer, Brain and Tara said an emergency safety plan was something their family desperately needed.
"It made me think we don't really have a plan. A fire could really separate you and your child and I don't want that to happen," Tara said.
JBLM fire inspector Ed Chavez said the number of fires on the installation has decreased as FES has ramped up its fire education efforts, but that shouldn't make people complacent. Fire safety practices should be commonly known.
"We won't know how well we're doing until families put what we show them to work," Chavez said. "The more the public knows, the less we have to go."
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