Three Pine Bush Elementary School students had very special rides to school recently. Chloe Idsall, Ella Harget and Zoe Taenzer, all fifth-grade students at PBE, had the honor of arriving at school in a Pine Bush Fire Department fire engine, driven by their future principal, John Boyle, of Crispell Middle School.

Chloe, Ella and Zoe were the winners from PBE of the Pine Bush Fire Department EDITH contest. EDITH stands for Exit Drills In The Home. The contest is open to all fifth-graders in the school and these three young women provided winning plans.

Creating an exit plan before a fire occurs is the best way to help you remain calm and get you and your family out safely. Fire moves very quickly! Once a fire alarm goes off, you may have just seconds or a couple minutes to get out safely. Firefighters advise everyone to be prepared and create a plan.

They recommend everyone design an escape plan. To do that, sketch the floor plan of your home on a piece of paper. Include all doors, windows and other areas from which you could escape. Families should plan two ways out of every room just in case one way is blocked by smoke or fire. Arrows should indicate the normal exits which would serve as the primary escape route. In another color, draw arrows to show a secondary exit from each room.

Once everyone is out, there should be a meeting place for everyone in the home to meet up.

Families should practice their escape plan, making changes where needed.

Mr. Boyle and Craig Gillespie, both former PBFD chiefs, developed the EDITH program for local schools about 10 years ago as a fire safety outreach program.

The prize of a ride to school in the fire engine is icing on the cake for those who create the most exemplary exit plans.