Fire Safety Education at
New York City Fire Museum

The Fire Museum has a safety education program designed to teach children how to prevent fires within the home and how to protect themselves and escape should a fire occur.

The program consists of two components — classroom training and a simulated fire event in a mock home environment. During the first portion, students are shown an age-appropriate video regarding fire safety and burn prevention. Immediately following the video, a New York City firefighter leads a discussion to reinforce safety information presented in the video.

During the second half of the program, the firefighter leads the students through various rooms in a mock apartment. In each room (living room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom), various fire and burn hazards are black-lit and the firefighter spends time explaining how each can cause a fire and what can be done to prevent it. When the group reaches the bedroom, the firefighter closes the door to continue his/her discussion. Simultaneously, the firefighter's assistant fills the rest of the apartment with theatrical smoke. A smoke alarm sounds and the firefighter teaches the children how to escape, and then helps them practice.

When the fire safety portion of the program is complete, the children are given a historical tour of the Museum's first floor, "The Evolution of Firefighting," by a retired New York City firefighter.

The entire program takes approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes and is held Mondays through Fridays at 10:30AM, 11:30AM and 12:30PM. Typically a minimum of 10 children is needed for a Fire Safety Tour, but they are happy to include individual homeschoolers with an already booked school field trip. Alternately, parents can organize their own group of children. The tour costs $3/child and $5/adult. For groups of 10 or more, one adult is admitted free for every 10 children. Advance reservations are needed for group tours and a $30 deposit is required to secure your time slot. Tours can be booked by calling 212-691-1303 x14 or e-mailing events@nycfiremuseum.org. Read more information.