By CAROLINE CARMICHAEL / Staff Writer

The Thorsby Fire Department hosted a fire safety talk and demonstration to kindergarteners and first graders at Thorsby High School on Oct. 2.

Lieutenant Phillip Porter and Engineer Josh Parker delivered an engaging presentation to the wide-eyed and hand-raising students.

Props, such as a beeping smoke detector, a beeping motion detector attached to Parker’s fireman suit and even a roof hook entry tool, inspired broad smiles and enthusiastic comments from the young audience.

Several of the kids said they had never been inside a fire truck before.

That changed at the close of the presentation, and the grinning students filed out of the backseats of the fire truck to the front bumper of the vehicle for class pictures.

Porter said the Thorsby Fire Department makes it a goal to give fire safety presentations to children at local schools each autumn. It helps keep the number of house fires down, he said.

Students were taught basic “stop, drop and roll” response to fires, with some additional tips on where to go and how to best navigate their homes in the case of a fire.

Porter told the students that firemen also help people at the scenes of car accidents.

Parker donned his fireman suit, including the air tank and mask, and demonstrated to the students that he was still “Mr. Josh” and “not scary,” even with his bulky suit and “Darth Vader” voice speaking through the special mouthpiece.

The kids loved it.

One student got to try on the suit for himself.

Fully suited, kindergartener Carter Easterling smiled up from under the big, yellow helmet, his arms stiffly extended at his side through enormous sleeves.

“Can you move, Carter?” his teacher asked.

Carter beamed and shook his head.

There was no doubt that the fire safety presentation had been a success — even more so, a hit — for the Thorsby kindergarteners and first graders.

Porter and Parker could return to the Thorsby Fire Department having delivered a message that was not only engaging, but heard.