Safety Day became “excitement day” for a group of elementary school students Thursday.
The pupils from Iola, Humboldt and Moran were invited guests for the second annual Safety Day, hosted by the Allen County 911 communications center.
On multiple occasions, on-duty emergency personnel were summoned to real life calls.
None was more exciting than when the Eagle Med helicopter was summoned for duty in the morning.
“Normally, we wouldn’t have the helicopter take off with the students nearby,” said Angie Murphy, 911 director, because of obvious safety reasons.
But duty called, so the area was cleared for the helicopter to take off.
“I think the kids got a bigger kick out of that than anything,” Murphy said.
Early in the afternoon, Iola firefighters were summoned to a possible fire at O’Shaughnessy’s Liquor, 1211 East St., where an electric short caused an air conditioner motor to overheat. There was no fire.
“That’s the price of doing business in public safety, especially when you’re on duty,” Murphy said.
The firefighters returned to the Safety Day demonstrations after their call ended.
The event was open to all kindgerten through third-grade students.
Personnel from the 911 Communications Center and the county’s sheriff’s department, jail, volunteer fire, emergency medical service and emergency management departments manned the stations, as did crews from the Community Emergency Response Team, Iola’s police, fire and electric departments, Moran’s police and fire deprtments, the Humboldt Police Deaprtment, Kansas Highway Patrol, the Kansas Search and Rescue Dog Association and the Eagle Med crew.
Other volunteers form Kappa Alpha chapter of Phi Tau Omega, Community National Bank, Iola Rotary, Humboldt Youth Friends Group, the Humboldt Journalism Department and USD 258 nurse Megan Anderson assisted.
On-duty calls add to excitement
