Young Artist, Inventor Excel In Fire Prevention Efforts

By John Voket

Kelly Baylis believes paying close attention to her award-winning poster on fire safety procedures could very well save your life. And Johnny Kerins has visions of an institutional fire safety system he invented being used in schools, businesses, and hospitals around the world some day.

These two Newtown elementary students participated in separate fire prevention activities during the school year, and both came away with statewide and local recognition for their efforts.

Kelly, a Head O’ Meadow student, and Johnny, who attends St Rose School, gathered with family members, a teacher, and representatives from the Newtown Fire Marshal’s office Tuesday at Edmond Town Hall to talk about their respective projects.

Fire Marshal Bill Halstead, town fire training officer Bob Nute, and Assistant Fire Marshal Kevin Cragen also took advantage of the opportunity to present Kelly with an award for being Newtown’s townwide fire prevention poster contest winner. Her artwork will be part of a fire prevention calendar that will be issued across Connecticut in 2006, according to Mr Nute.

“We had a lot of great stuff from 137 students who entered posters with fire prevention themes, and Kelley was chosen as the town winner,” he said.

Kelly, who visited with her art teacher Donna Perugini during the brief ceremony, said her poster carried four distinct messages.

“One piece warned people to be more careful about having a plan of escape and a central meeting place for everyone in case of a fire,” she said. “It tells you how to get out [of a fire] safely, it reminds younger children not to play with matches, and for people to be careful about their use of candles,” Kelly said.

Ms Perugini said the artwork was created by using brightly colored markers, hand lettering, and an interesting placement of subject matter.

“Kelly had blocks marked off, and ideas for drawings in each one,” Ms Perugini said. “She made great use of space and composition.”

“I used an overall background color and design,” Kelly added.

Kelly said she was most gratified when fellow students complimented her work and told her they would pay attention to the advice she presented.

Celebrating 23 years as an art instructor and her fifth year in Newtown, Ms Perugini said Kelly’s work represented the first Head O’ Meadow winner in the poster contest.

Although Johnny Kerins received his statewide award from the Connecticut Fire Marshal’s office following the recent UConn Invention Convention, he was invited to the local recognition ceremony Tuesday. The student was quick to credit his father and uncle for helping him work out the complicated electrical and mechanical aspects of his invention, which he calls the “Teacher’s Fire Aid.”

“My model of the system uses a fluorescent light, a generator, and an air conditioning register to simulate louver windows,” Johnny explained.

He said the system would become part of an overall installation in facilities like schools where, in the event of a fire, teachers have the primary responsibility to evacuate the children quickly.

“A switch or button would be installed next to the exit door high enough for the teacher, but above the reach of little kids who might be tempted to play with the controls,” Johnny said.

If a fire alarm sounds, the teacher would simply direct students to the exit, grab her attendance book, and hit the switch as he or she exits the empty classroom. The “Teacher’s Fire Aid” would then activate turning off all the lights and slowly closing all open windows to prevent outside air from feeding and spreading a fire.

“It can be installed in any school,” Johnny said. “But it could also be used in businesses, hospitals, anywhere people under care need to get out of a building safely.”

Mr Nute said he and his fellow fire marshals wanted to publicly congratulated Johnny for his invention, and recognized the fact that the “Teacher’s Fire Aid,” was only one of four winners in the Convention’s fire prevention category statewide.

“This invention convention is aimed at sparking the inventive minds of our youth, and so it did…,” Mr Nute said with a wink.