Dozens of preschool students smiled and waved as they watched two of their teachers being lifted nearly 100 feet in the air in a fire truck bucket at Clanton Fire Station No. 1 on Tuesday.

Children ages 2-4 from Clanton First Baptist Church’s preschool program visited the Clanton Fire and Police departments to learn about safety and meet firefighters and police officers that work daily to protect them.

The visits are part of the program’s annual Community Helpers Week activities the first week of October.

“It’s just something we try to do for the kids so they’re not afraid,” CFBC Preschool Assistant Director Melinda White said. “These people are here to help them, not to scare them.”

Garrett Cantley, 4, enjoyed seeing the fire truck and learned how to “stop, drop and roll” in a fire.

Tuesday marked Cantley’s third year to visit the fire and police departments for Community Safety Week.

Another veteran visitor, 4-year-old Olivia Driver, said she would “get out of my house” if it were on fire.

White and preschool teacher Tiffanee Edwards took a ride in the fire truck bucket to demonstrate what firefighters must do in certain situations to put out fires and rescue victims.

Clanton Fire Chief David Driver said his department would probably see 350-400 children this week for safety-related visits.

“If you start them out at a young age knowing what to do and what not to do, they’ll be more responsible,” Driver said. “We actually need to practice fire prevention all year round.”

Driver emphasized not playing with matches as one of the main rules he and other firefighters try to teach children during fire safety and prevention visits.

“If we can just get across to one of them not to play with matches, it’s worth our efforts and all that we put into it,” he said.

At the police department, the children watched Spirit, a drug detection dog, search for and locate drugs hidden in two of the department’s vehicles.

They were also given time to walk through a mobile command vehicle and see different equipment and weapons officers use.

Clanton Police Chief Brian Stilwell said the annual visits are a good opportunity for children to see and meet officers in uniform in a positive setting, and perhaps learn enough about their jobs to cultivate an interest in pursuing a career in law enforcement someday.

“We do this every year,” Clanton Police Chief Brian Stilwell said. “It’s better if we can get them to see us as friends and not bad guys. If we can instill that in them at this age, we’ll be better off.”

White said CFBC preschool students would get to see an ambulance Thursday and Friday.