The Wellsville Fire Company prefers to teach a proactive, quick response to fires. Through various public education programs, we begin educating children at a very young age about the basics of a home escape plan. Children are taught the importance of responding quickly to a smoke alarm, knowing two ways out of every room, crawling low in smoke, having a meeting place outside their home and once out staying out.

The Tot Finder stickers are not recommended as we do not want families to have a false sense of security by having these stickers placed on exterior windows and interior bedroom doors. The decals could also act as a signal to unwanted individuals directing them to the location of your children. The Wellsville Fire Company would like you to understand that when we respond for a fire, we are trained to perform a systematic search of the entire house. If we only concentrated on the rooms with the Tot Finder decals, we could miss someone.

We recommend that you and your family get together and develop a fire escape plan. Indicate two ways out of each room, develop a meeting place outside the house and practice the fire escape plan so everyone knows what to do. Remember to have a smoke detector on each level of your home and remember to test them each month and change the batteries twice a year. Please refer to the attached information and the link below for more on fire escape planning.