Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service Newsdesk

at 23/09/2009 17:26

Cornwall County Fire Brigade is calling on schools to help them raise awareness of the importance of being safe around fireworks and bonfires in advance of bonfire night celebrations.

Children in Key Stage 2 (ages 7 – 11) are invited to design a poster to be submitted through their school, with the winning entry professionally printed and used by the Brigade during this year’s safety campaign.

The deadline for entries is October 13 and the brief asks for an A4 poster which can be freehand or designed on a computer. The prize for the designer of the winning entry is to see the poster used in this year’s Cornwall County Fire Brigade fireworks and bonfire safety campaign. In addition, the child who designs the poster will win for their class a trip to the Fire Brigade’s Flashpoint Lifeskills Centre in Bodmin.

Flashpoint is an exciting interactive learning centre designed to cater for groups of all abilities and all ages over 5. The Centre offers the opportunity to learn about safety by experiencing risk. There are 12 scenarios on offer, each of which allows visitors to have first hand experience of confronting potentially dangerous and hazardous situations in complete safety.

Cornwall Council cabinet member for stronger communities Lance Kennedy says: “Who better to ask for help in promoting safety than the young people who most enjoy the excitement of fireworks and bonfire night? This is a great way to involve children in thinking about safety in a fun way and which gives the winner a chance to experience the excellent facility at Flashpoint with his or her classmates.”

Chief Fire Officer Des Tidbury comments, “Fireworks are to be enjoyed but we need to make sure that everyone realises that they can be dangerous. The majority of firework injuries happen at family or private parties, so getting children on board to think about firework and bonfire safety is very important.”

Entries for the competition need to be submitted to Flashpoint by 13 October:

Flashpoint Lifeskills Centre
21 – 23 Normandy Way, Bodmin, Cornwall PL31 1HA

www.flashpointcentre.co.uk

www.cornwall.gov.uk/fire

Related item: http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=18868