Photo courtesy of Washington Fire Department.

Fire trucks were making noise throughout the City of Washington Wednesday night, but you can rest assured they weren’t responding to an emergency.

It’s National Fire Prevention Week, and the Washington Fire Department traveled around town to see if homes had their porch lights on to signify that they have a planned Exit Drill In the Home, otherwise known as Operation Edith. The firefighters also visited the Stewart and Lincoln elementaries and St. James Catholic School this week to get students more acquainted with their operations and have the students “Learn the Sounds of Fire Safety,” this year’s fire prevention week theme. Washington volunteer firefighter Andy Miller says this theme teaches about the different sounds that smoke and carbon monoxide detectors make, and that there are detectors now that can even record voices, “There’s some studies out there that show that kids will wake up to their mom’s voice, they won’t be quite as startled as that ‘beep beep beep’ that we’re all used to. So again have that plan in your house, if it’s a beep that’s great, if it’s your mom’s voice that comes over the smoke detector or dad’s voice or an adult in the house, that’s great but just so kids understand and they have a plan when they do hear that.”

Miller points out that there are detectors that emit light or have other functions to alert those who are hard of hearing or deaf. All of that can go out the window if you don’t regularly replace your detector batteries. Miller says he reserves his birthday every year to replace them. You can hear more about Fire Prevention Week in last Monday’s Halcyon House Washington Page with Miller at kciiradio.com.