Fire art: The woman on her way to City Hall to turn in her absentee ballot wouldn’t have noticed the banners on the light poles if someone hadn’t called her attention to them. One had “911” on it with “little firefighters and hoses,” she observed. Another had a “quite pretty” image of a burning building, a firefighter on a truck dousing the flames “with a lot of blue water,” and a person on the top floor screaming “Help!”
That dramatic scene was the work of Desmond, a student at Mitchell Elementary School. Kimber, from Haisley, drew the little firefighters. Lauren, from Abbot, divided her banner into quadrants. The first three illustrate “stop, drop and roll,” with the last showing a person safely walking away.
They’re among the seventeen winners of a contest last year for local elementary students. One of the judges, city communications manager Joanna Satterlee, says they chose the “most colorful and best” designs that communicated fire safety and prevention messages: “Lots of ‘don’t play with matches,’ and ‘stop, drop and roll.'”
Tammy Jones, former managing assistant to the fire chief, admits she was disappointed with the response. She wrote the $10,000 grant that paid for the contest and personally delivered “thousands” of entry forms to schools, but only forty students submitted artworks. Still, it was a thrill for the winners and their families, who were honored with a dinner at Fire Station 1 across from City Hall–pizza donated by Domino’s and soda contributed by firefighters union Local 693. “The kids were so proud,” says Jones. “The firefighters sat down and had dinner with the kids … The mayor came and gave a little talk.”
Banners are also hanging at Station 3 on Jackson Rd., Station 4 on Huron Pkwy., Station 5 on Briarwood Cir., and Station 6 on Beal. “I’d love to see it continue,” says Jones. “It would be a wonderful activity for Fire Prevention Week” in October.
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This article has been edited since it was published in the August 2016 Ann Arbor Observer. The pizza donor has been corrected.
