NLV fire captain proposes children’s ‘safety village’

By Steve Kanigher

Sunday, June 19, 2011 | 2 a.m.

New firefighters learn their skills by attending an academy, where they extinguish flames in concrete towers.

Police officers don’t earn their badges until they prove in an academy their dexterity to fire a weapon, their strength to subdue an assailant, and their mental and physical ability to handle pressure.

And lifeguards attend Red Cross classes to learn how to administer CPR.

But where is the training facility for children — aside from their parents — to learn how to avoid drowning in a swimming pool or to protect themselves from fires, dangerous motorists, extreme outdoor heat and Internet predators?

North Las Vegas Fire Capt. Cedric Williams thinks he can provide the solution: a “safety village,” where children can encounter the hazards of everyday life.

The village, the first of its kind in Nevada, would include miniature versions of houses, churches, hotels and other buildings children are likely to enter. Instructors will teach children how to stay safe both inside these buildings and on the village streets outside. They’ll learn how to act near a swimming pool, wear a seat belt in a car or a helmet while on a bicycle, and how to protect themselves in a fire.

The goal is to give them simulated experiences, much the same way safety professionals train. The difference is the fun factor Williams promises the safety village would provide.

“This is a real project that will help our citizens,” Williams said while standing over a model of the village.

But Williams, who doubles as the department spokesman, has a major hurdle to clear. He’s got to figure out how to raise $17.5 million without relying on financial help from a city whose budget woes forced the City Council last month to announce 258 layoffs.

Williams is banking on financial support from private foundations and companies willing to erect and sponsor the miniature buildings. He is also working on a federal grant request through Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Dubbed the Northern STARS Safety Village, the project is intended to be on 10 acres just north of the SkyView Multi-Generational Center at Centennial Parkway and Statz Street.

The Bureau of Land Management acreage was initially transferred to the city for a park. By July 18, Williams expects BLM approval to convert the park designation to one for a safety village. A separate building with classrooms is also planned, as is an outdoor amphitheater.

The village is being designed by Assemblage Studio of Las Vegas, which has won an American Institute of Architects design award for the project.

Staffing would include four full-time safety instructors, two of whom work for the fire department, along with volunteers. Admission would be free to all ages and would be open to anyone, regardless of where they live. Although the greatest emphasis would be on child safety, Williams anticipates instruction for seniors on how to prevent falls and what to do when they happen.

Williams doesn’t anticipate needing $17.5 million to open, but seeks to raise that amount for an endowment to help pay for village salaries and maintenance.

“This is a great opportunity for a public-private partnership because of the children involved and the lives that will be saved because of the project,” Williams said.

Inspiration for the project came from Dallas suburb Frisco, home of the Frisco Fire Safety Town. Since opening in 2007, the facility has attracted more than 174,000 children and parents, Frisco Fire Chief Mack Borchardt said.

“In my opinion, it has been a huge success,” Borchardt said. “It’s very much a family activity. Our goal is to reach parents through the children. I learned many years ago that children listen to us about safety better than they do their parents.”

Nevada PTA President-elect Kimberly Tate of Henderson said a safety village in the valley would be a terrific idea embraced by parents. Tate, who has three children in public schools and two in college, said it would teach children about household appliances, recalling that her eldest child was once burned by a hot curling iron.

“I definitely think parents and children in Southern Nevada would benefit from something like that,” Tate said. “We live in a very hot environment and we have a lot of pool safety issues. The PTA is all about supporting safety, and this sounds like it would be done in a fun way.”

The project also is embraced by Denise Ashby and Tara Phebus, the executive director and senior research analyst, respectively, for UNLV’s Nevada Institute for Children’s Research and Policy, which produces an annual report analyzing child deaths in Clark County.

They reported that 57 children died from accidents in the county in 2009, the latest year for which statistics are available. That’s a decline from 65 in 2008 and 66 in 2007, but above the 53 fatalities in 2006.

Of the accident victims in 2009, nearly half were 4 years old or younger. Twenty-two were because of drowning or suffocation/strangulation; 15 involved motor vehicles or other modes of transportation; 13 involved poisoning; four were because of a fall or acute illness, and three were weapon-related.

The safety village, Phebus said, “looks like it’s definitely in line with the recommendations we’ve made for prevention. It sounds great.”