"When do you call 911?" "Give us an example of emergencies to call 911" "Do you call 911 for fun or as a game?"

All of these questions are typically part of the teaching message that the Wichita Fire Department uses in their Fire Safety and Injury Prevention Programs to help children understand that calling 911 is for emergencies only.

Through such fun in learning programs as Puppet Shows, Smokey the Bear Girl Scouts Program and Fire Station Tours and others, the department is always teaching children that calling 911 is serious business, and if you call 911 you must be prepared to state your emergency and address, listen carefully to the 911 operator and don’t hang up the phone until the operator tells you to do so.  Dispatch for 911 considers all calls, even from children, to be an emergency and treats them as such.

The department feels that by teaching children these messages at such an early age, it will be something the child will remember for the rest of his or her life and it will also help reduce the number of false calls that our 911 systems across the nation receive each year.

For safety information, call the Wichita Fire Department at 268-4441.

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