Mount Vernon News

FREDERICKTOWN — Two local fire departments are working with the Amish community to ensure Amish children are safe from fire hazards while at school. For the first time this year, local Amish schools are being inspected by the Eastern Knox County Joint Fire District and the Fredericktown Community Fire District.

These schools can pose special challenges for fire departments, the first of which is locating them. Capt. Chris Willis of the EKCJFD said his department has been compiling a list over the past year of the Amish schools in that district, but it requires a lot of detective work, because a list is not available to fire departments from any state or county agency.

Fredericktown Chief Scott Mast is facing the same challenge. After contacting members of the local Amish community, and actually driving around to locate the schools, Mast said he is confident his department is on its way to compiling an accurate list of schools in the district.

Willis and Mast both said having such a list addresses critical concerns, such as familiarizing firefighters with the exact locations of the schools, including those on farms, and allowing fire officials to conduct annual inspections of the schools. All schools with 20 or more pupils are required by the Ohio Fire Code to have annual fire inspections.

According to Barney Wolf, spokesman for the Division of State Fire Marshal, there is no specific exemption in the Ohio Fire Code regarding Amish schools.

“The code language is not different,” said Wolf. “That being said, the owner of a new building being built can petition the Board of Building Appeals for variances. If an owner of an existing building receives a citation, he can appeal it to the Board of Building Appeals.”

“A school is a school,” said Mast, explaining that every school needs to follow safety standards to keep students and staff safer.

Because wood stoves are often used to heat the schools, and flammable liquids are used to power lights, fire hazards unique to Amish schools require special attention. A lack of alarm systems or even telephones to contact local fire departments are also of concern.

“I try to stress to the Amish that when they do call to report a fire, we need to know not just where they are calling from, but where the emergency actually is,” Willis said.

When a member of the Amish community travels to another location to call 9-1-1, the location they are calling from is what is automatically registered at the 9-1-1 center.

Amish schools do not usually have posted addresses, which could cost valuable time in an emergency, if the fire department is not already familiar with the school. Willis said his department received a fire call this past fall from an Amish school on Dennis Church Road of which the department was unaware.

“This was a school that we didn’t know about in our district,” he said.

A wood stove placed too close to a wall scorched the wall, and posed a significant danger. There were no smoke alarms or fire extinguishers in the school. No one was injured, but Willis said the incident underlined the dilemma local departments face when they are called to an emergency at a building with which they are unfamiliar. Some Amish school houses, such as the one on Dennis Church Road, are included in a property address that includes other structures such as farmhouses and outbuildings. When a fire call is received, if there is no obvious smoke or flame, it can be impossible to know where exactly the fire is.

Both departments are adding information about the Amish schools into computer databases; the information includes exact location, floor plans and nearby water supplies.

“We don’t really come up to all the standards,” said Waterford Road resident Robert Yoder, who, along with two other men, oversees 12 Amish schools in the Fredericktown area. Yoder said the schools in his district do not have smoke detectors, but if the fire department required them, they would be installed.

When he visits them, Mast plans to provide working smoke alarms to schools without detectors. Fire extinguishers will also be required, according to Mast, as well as proper egress, handrails on stairways and wood stoves that are installed in a proper manner, without nearby combustibles.

Yoder said school fire inspections and safety are also being discussed in other Amish communities.

“This issue has come up in Holmes County,” he said.

Mast said that Yoder and the other Amish he has spoken with have been receptive and cordial. Yoder said his community is willing to address the safety concerns.

“We’re willing to work with them,” Yoder said of the Fredericktown department.

For the first time, Fredericktown and the EKCJFD have started fire prevention programs in the Amish schools as well. Willis said fire safety and first-aid presentations his department has given to Amish schoolchildren have gone well. He hopes to make the presentations annually.

Fredericktown firefighter Jason Bostic said a fire safety presentation he gave to Amish community members at a school in Pike Township last fall was well received.

“The most important thing we stressed is what to do in case of a fire,” Bostic said. “Where to go if there’s a fire, and what do to do to contact the fire department to get us there.”

Bostic said the invitation from the Amish community to give the presentation was welcomed by his department.

“2007 is the first year that we’ve done any fire prevention with the Amish. We were pleased to do that because they are such a large part of our community,” he said.

A fire last month at an Amish school in Pennsylvania during school hours shows the need for fire inspections in these schools. Fire extinguishers were not in the school, which had 30 children inside at the time. A neighbor on a nearby farm saw the flames, and ran to the aid of those in the school with an extinguisher. The children escaped the blaze unharmed, and the local fire department responded and put out the blaze.

An Amish school on Cooke Road suffered a chimney fire four years ago, to which the FCDF responded and extinguished. Mast said no other Amish schools in his district have had fire calls since then.

Respecting Amish culture while requiring compliance with fire safety standards is a delicate balance local fire officials are still establishing. Yoder questioned why the non-Amish would be concerned with fire inspections in Amish schools. Mast said inspection and preplanning keep firefighters and the people they protect safer, and fire departments which respond to fire emergencies among the Amish in the community value the safety of everyone.

“We risk a lot to save a lot,” he said.