Answering the call: East County captain: Not enough fire safety taught

As captain of public education for the East County Fire Protection District, Debbie Maupin says she's always learning. And she'd like the families in the district to always be learning about fire prevention as well. Maupin joined the volunteer East County crew in 2003, a few years after undergoing a life-changing surgery. Today, at 48, she has big goals for the department, including reaching out to more area businesses in order to spread the word about fire safety.

Question: When you joined the department, were you doing public education right away?

Answer: I just was a firefighter and EMT and just started to get into it. They decided to send me to Emmitsburg, Md. I went through the national fire academy for public education. I went through that class and found it very informative and very interesting. I'm trying to learn what I can do to bring in the adults, but right now it's mostly the kids I'm teaching. I've got some plans that I'd like to work with the Discovery Playhouse. The little day care centers that are disbursed through the East County district, I would like to contact these people, but it's hard when you don't know who they are.

Q: How did you get interested in joining the East County fire department?

A: It was never brought up to me that a woman could do a lot of things. My parents were always saying girls were to be at home and parents. They're the mother who took care of the house, but that's on the wayside now. I grew up in a conventional home. I was always a very large child; I had weight issues, and back in 2001 I did the gastric bypass surgery. In 2003, a friend of mine suggested to me that we should join a volunteer fire department. She needed it for school, she was becoming a nurse practitioner, and I needed it to stay out of the house. I needed to stay away from the refrigerator. I ended up in East County and got under the wings of the personnel there, and it just went like wildfire. It is in my blood. I'm very passionate about it.

Q: When were you assigned to public education?

A: Two years ago. I took off with it. There's so much that you can do with public education. But it's just, how do you fit it with your district and your people? It's very easy to do with the kids, because the kids haven't had this opportunity yet and you have the Scouts in the area that need merit badges and they need somebody to do some of their training for them, which I love to do. I'm a hands-on trainer. I'll put a PowerPoint up, but I lose my place because I never follow it. We've done Girl Scout camps; we've sent so many Girl Scouts through different aspects of the fire prevention, learning about fire safety, medical, and we do first responder classes with them.

Q: Did you set up your own curriculum for East County?

A: It's a hands on, let's roll with the punches, fit to our needs lesson. If I find something out there that the people want, then I'm going to try to fit it in. Some of the local businesses have called me for CPR classes and instead of just being the strict and giving them a PowerPoint, I'm hands on. I've learned throughout the years watching fellow instructors that you've got to fit the lesson to what they want. Tell a joke, make them laugh, it sticks. The information sticks. If you attach the message to something they know then they get it.

Q: What's the most valuable lesson you've learned from other fire safety instructors?

A: That there's not enough of it. There's not enough fire prevention taught. I go through the Christmas parades and I've got the good candy, the good chocolate and instead of just walking around and throwing it I'm also the one that's lagging behind because I ask the children to give me a fire prevention message. If you can't answer my question, no candy, if you can answer the question, you get the good candy.

It's just the lack of practice. More people should have fire drills at home ... It's one of those things where I would love to hit that hot and heavy -- the fire drills, the smoke detector testing, knowing to have a place in the neighborhood to go if something happens. We need to get that instilled in our young children so as they're growing up they can pass it down to their kids.

ehevern@semissourian.com

388-3635

Pertinent Address:

Cape Girardeau, MO