With the recent partnership between Fire Rescue and the Citrus County Sheriff's Office, there is a need for additional volunteers to help staff the Fire Safety House.

The safety house is a specially designed mobile classroom used to teach participants of all ages about what are called "fire-safe behaviors."

The unit is transported to schools throughout Citrus County, as well as to scheduled community events countywide.

This educational tool allows children and adults to practice escaping from a simulated house fire. Assisted by volunteers, fire personnel use electronically operated smoke detectors and a non-toxic smoke in a simulated bedroom to create a realistic environment where participants can practice escaping from a house in the event of a fire.

Additional features of the safety house also enable fire safety educators to teach kitchen safety, home heating safety and how to report an emergency.

With hands-on teaching as its primary goal, the Fire Safety House helps children and adults learn how to identify fire hazards and how to escape from an actual smoke-filled room. A safe, non-toxic artificial smoke is used to illustrate the potentially damaging effects of smoke exposure.

Concepts - including such things as the importance of closing bedroom doors before going to sleep, having a well-rehearsed family escape plan and how difficult it is to maneuver and see properly in smoke - are all demonstrated.

Other audiovisual features assist staff with presenting the fire safety message. An exterior-viewed television, public address system and wireless microphone combine to bring the program to life.

All of the activities demonstrated in the Fire Safety House can be videotaped for future presentation in either the classroom or any other setting.

Volunteers are needed to assist with the safety house program. Their responsibilities will vary from assisting escaping youngsters from the windows of the safety house to fielding questions, distributing literature, etc.

"The scope of what our volunteers do on a day-to-day basis is incredibly diverse," said Sheriff Jeff Dawsy, "but right now, we're specifically reaching out to citizens, as well as any of our own volunteers, who can put in some time with the safety house program. My staff will gladly assist them by providing whatever training and tools they need to get the job done."

Interested applicants must be at least 18, and be willing to complete and submit an application form. In addition, because of working with children in a school setting, all applicants are subject to fingerprinting, plus a criminal background check, as part of their volunteer processing.

A volunteer application form may be downloaded from the Sheriff's Office official website at www.sheriffcitrus.org by clicking on the "Volunteers" tab. For more information or to request an application form, contact John Beebe, Fire Rescue's volunteer coordinator, at 352-527-7612, or e-mail him at jbeebe@sheriffcitrus.org.