House on Wheels

     The Fire Safety Program, which is mobile, is known as the House on Wheels.  The first House on Wheels came to Berkeley County mid to late 1970's.  The house was given to the Berkeley County Fire and Rescue Association by Chief Jim Estepp of the Prince Georges County Maryland Fire Department.  The Programs then were not structured or scheduled with any regularity.  During the early to mid 1980's, the program became nearly non-existent.

     In 1992, the Director of the Berkeley County Office of Emergency Services Stephen S. Allen, came to Martinsburg Fire Department and asked Scott W. Stroop for assistance with getting the House on Wheels Program started again.  After a discussion with Chief G. Douglas Fellers the Martinsburg Fire Department began their involvement with the program.

     The house had fallen into disrepair.  The Martinsburg Firefighters made repairs and the program was taken to the Berkeley County School Board for placement in the school system.

     Since 1992 the Martinsburg Fire Department has taken the lead with scheduling, transporting, and presenting the program with assistance from Director Allen.  The first eight years (1992-2000) students from Kindergarten-5th grades attended due to the program being strictly and exterior visual display.  In 2000 a new House was purchased and students now enter the building with simulated smoke pumped in and students perform an escape based on what they have learned.  The program was then changed to Kindergarten-1st Grade students attending.

     The earlier programs allowed for large numbers to view; however the new house works best with one class of students during each presentation.  The presentation includes a 15 minute video, 15 minutes of instruction at the house, and 15 minutes with a firefighter and a fire truck.  The Firefighter dresses in all protective clothing and becomes the "Friendly Monster" meeting and shaking hands with students.

     Since 1992, approximately 65,000 students plus faculty and staff have been educated by the House on Wheels Program.

     In 1994, the House on Wheels, under the direction of Congressman Bob Wise, was made into a video and made available to every elementary school in West Virginia.  The video was filmed at the Martinsburg Fire Department with the narration done by Scott W. Stroop.

Information obtained by S. W. Stroop, Retired MFD

House on Wheels makes a difference

MARLOWE - A Marlowe Elementary kindergarten student is being credited with saving her family's life by giving a simple reminder to her mother: check the smoke detectors.

Jayden Johnson, 5, of Falling Waters, participated in the Martinsburg City Fire Department's House on Wheels mobile fire safety program last fall. The program teaches children fire safety measures, such as the importance of smoke detectors and what to do in the event of a fire.

Jayden listened to a warning about checking smoke detector batteries and told her mother, Alicia Johnson, that the family needed to check their smoke detectors in case there was ever a fire.

Four months later, on Jan. 17, a fire broke out in the Johnsons' home.

Johnson said that it was the smoke detector that woke her up that morning, as a light smoke filled the house.

Fortunately, Johnson, her husband Craig, and their children, Jayden and Tyler, who is two months old, were able to get out safely. The family's furniture, appliances and electronics were damaged, but Jackson said the family is being reimbursed for their possessions and insurance is covering cleaning costs. They are also being reimbursed for meals and house bills.

She said that the fire started in the family room's fireplace downstairs, when the wood under the hearth caught fire and went up the walls.

"I'm proud," Johnson said of Jayden. "It if wasn't for her, we may not have had batteries in the smoke detectors. The fire department said they would have found four bodies and a house full of smoke if we had waited another 45 minutes to an hour."

When firefighters entered the home, it took them more than five hours to put the fire out because they kept finding multiple fires in the walls of the home.

The family has been displaced and living in a hotel in Hagerstown since the day of the fire. Johnson said they expect to return home by Feb. 14, but they will have about six months of construction ahead of them to replace and paint the walls and lay new carpet.

Although she is glad they have a place to stay, Johnson said living in a hotel has been inconvenient at times.

"We were in three different hotels in three days because of the inauguration," Johnson said. "Every day I'd bag up our things and move out."

The Berkeley County Board of Education donated $200 to help with clothes for Jayden, and a collection at the Martinsburg City Fire Department helped with gasoline expenses for running back and forth to the house and hotel.

The House on Wheels program is administered by the members of the Martinsburg City Fire Department, including Capt. Scott Stroop, Mark Stroop, Lt. David Hess, Jason Gochenour and Doug Smith; as well as Steve Allen, the Berkeley County director of Homeland Security.

The program is administered to kindergarten and first grades, and it originally began in the 1970s. It was discontinued in the 1980s but started back up again in 1992. Since that time, it has served 60,000 students.

Scott Stroop said the program is a big undertaking every year.

"We hope the children take it home," he said. "This reinforces that the program is valuable."

On Wednesday, the Falling Waters heroine received a round of applause and a kind word from firefighters at the Martinsburg department. Jayden exchanged a couple of high fives and handshakes and received some souvenirs from the department, including her own fireman's hat.

Stroop said it was impressive that Jayden told her family about the smoke detectors.

"Thank you for listening," Stroop said.

Jayden's guidance counselor and principal at Marlowe Elementary said they are also proud of Jayden for telling her mother to check the smoke detectors.

"What she told her made a difference," said Ange Joel, guidance counselor at the school.

Sharon Rogers, principal at Marlowe, said that this is the first time in 11 years that the school has seen a family directly benefit from the fire safety program.

"It's very heartwarming," Rogers said.

-Staff writer Jillian E. Kesner, Martinsburg Journal