First-graders ride fire truck to Lyndonville school

Colin Cousins, Emily Dill won fire prevention contest

Photos by Tom Rivers

As the fire truck turned off Main Street and headed down Housel Avenue to Lyndonville Central School this morning, firefighters sounded the horn.

Ashton Lang meets first-graders in Mary Ann Kelly’s class.

LYNDONVILLE – Two first graders, Colin Cousins and Emily Dill, have big smiles after riding a Lyndonville fire truck to school this morning with firefighters Ashton Lang, left, and Larry Lonigan.

Colin and Emily are the winners of a fire prevention contest for the first grade. For the first time ever, the Lyndonville Fire Department gave children a ride to school.

“We thought it was an opportunity to get the kids excited,” said firefighter Ashton Lang.

First-graders are studying fire safety. They were encouraged to design a fire escape plan with their parents and practice the plan. Students who completed the assignment were eligible for the ride on the fire truck. The firefighters drew two names to determine who would ride the fire truck.

Lang and Lonigan pulled up at each student’s house this morning and drove them to the school.

Colin and Emily wore red firefighter helmets made of plastic. They hooked their back packs on the truck where firefighters put their gear.

“He’s very excited,” said Kelly Cousins, Colin’s mother. “He called all of his grandparents and aunts and uncles.”

Two classes of first-graders waited with a sense of awe by the sidewalk in front of the school. The fire truck pulled up and two first-graders hopped out.

All of the first-graders will be at the fire hall around noon to tour the fire trucks, see a hose line, hear the pagers go off and learn more about fire prevention.

The Fire Department wanted to give the kids a ride on the truck after hearing about that incentive provided by the North Greece Fire District. Pete Sidari of Albion is the fire safety officer for North Greece. He helped Lyndonville develop the protocol for this morning’s ride, which needed permission from the Village Board.

Lang said the department will talk about expanding the effort next year, perhaps giving more kids rides from other grade levels.

“They were both super excited when we rolled up,” he said.