Fire safety is no wagging matter, and one Dalmatian is out to make sure when there’s a spark, and that everyone knows his or her barking orders.
Sparkles the Fire Safety Dog traveled with Firefighter Dayna Hilton to teach children about fire safety, including an escape plan and outside meeting place. Hilton featured her four-legged colleague in her book, Sparkles the Fire Safety Dog. This fun book teaches children and adults how to crawl and paw through a smoky situation like Sparkles does, and how a smoke detector can help save lives.
Sparkles is credited with saving the lives of a kindergarten student and her father in Tulsa. The school’s principal wrote to Hilton that the student told him, “I crawled on the floor just like Sparkles taught me to.” She got down on the floor and demonstrated it to me right in the office floor. The principle said “smoke was everywhere and I stayed low to get away from it.” The young girl also led her father out of danger using Sparkles’ tips. Another student at the same school guided his siblings out of the house when the microwave caught fire, filling the house with smoke.
Hilton started the Keep Kids Safe Foundation, a non-profit charitable organization using Sparkles’ tail to teach kids and adults about fire safety and help reduce fire-related deaths and property losses.
Sparkles served as a fire safety dog for eight years after she was rescued from a home with 62 other dogs. Sparkles showed the ropes to Siren the Fire Safety Dog, Spanner and Tango who now also help show children safe tips when stuck in a hot spot.
Her blog was a finalist for a BlogPaws Award in the “Best Cause Blog” category. At the ceremony, Hilton spoke about her most popular program, Sparkles Safety Spot. This weekly, 15 minutes video is live-streamed to homes and schools every Friday. Keep Kids Safe uses different programs and safety materials to keep kids safe, and features lives that have been saved because of Sparkles.
For more information on the different programs offered by Sparkles and the Keep Kids Safe Foundation, visit http://www.keepkidsfiresafe.org.
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