By SANDRA THAMES / Community Columnist

Many years ago, Alabaster fireman Lt. Harold Mitchell was giving a demonstration at his daughter Kirby’s first-grade class. After putting on his oxygen mask and fire equipment he noticed tears on Kirby’s cheeks. She wanted her daddy back.

Mitchell thought “If I’m scary to my own child, then we need some education here.” Thus was born the idea of implementing fire information to kindergarten through fourth-grade classes.

Presently, kindergarten and first-graders get to see firemen in their gear, hear a safety talk and are given safety tips (such as get, out stay out). By second grade they get to experience Alabaster’s own FEMA trailer, which Mitchell rebuilt to standard Smoke House requirements.

For years, our department had borrowed a model which belonging to the county. Kids are seated in a mock living room of the trailer which is then filled with non-toxic liquid that turns to smoke or fog (sort of like the Halloween artificial fog) and then are allowed to feel their way out by leaving the room and always leading with their right hand. They come out of the living room — feel right, keep going past the dining area, bedroom, bath, kitchen and to the outside door. Yeah! Can’t you imagine the feeling of accomplishment a 7- or 8-year-old must feel to master this feat?

Fourth-graders are asked to draw escape routes of their own homes and arrange an outside meeting place. Lt. Mitchell tells the kids to have parents check all fire detectors. One child insisted “No supper until all detectors are checked — Lt. Mitchell said so! Since this program was implemented, Alabaster has not lost a child to fire.

Harold Mitchell, Alabaster home-grown and educated (Thompson High School 1975), former cotton mill, lime plant and Buffalo Rock employee is not one to be idle. He has coached little league softball, youth football and girls travel basketball. Daughter Kirby is a junior at Auburn University and wants to be a physical therapist. Son Drake will be an eighth-grader this fall. Relaxing at their place on Lay Lake and deer hunting in Wilcox County are stress relievers for Mitchell.

Mitchell does the CPR training and is over the free smoke detector program. (Just call if you don’t have one — they will come install.)

We all know about the proper installation of car seats for babies and children. In Alabaster, you can call your nearest fire station and set up a time to carry your car seat and vehicle in for the correct installation. Watch them — you won’t believe how tight they can get those seats.

The smoke house will be at Target’s National Night Out on Aug. 2. The department will have the “Boot” fundraiser for muscular dystrophy on tax free days Aug. 5, 6 and 7, and was recently set up at City Fest as a command center and first aid station.

Alabaster has 53 of the best-trained, most qualified yet down-to-earth firemen. We should be proud of our department and all the services it offers.

Community columnist Sandra Thames can be reached by email at bobthames1942@yahoo.com.