A Public Safety Awareness Day will be hosted by Highland District Hospital and the Highland County Firefighters Association on Sunday, Oct. 27 from 12 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. in Hillsboro at Highland District Hospital.
A number of state and local agencies including the Highland County Sheriff’s Office, local police departments, and the Ohio Department of Transportation will be participating.
The event has been held since 1996.
“We did it for 20 years before we got rained out in 2019 and were canceled by COVID in 2020, and we’ve just been trying to get things started again,” said Sgt. Scott Miller of the Highland County Sheriff’s Office, who is also the training officer for the Highland County Firefighters Association.
“The purpose is to meet your public servants like firefighters, and the kids interact with law enforcement, and that way they don’t fear us,” said Miller.
“We also get to hand out safety materials to tell them how to escape if their house catches on fire, and law enforcement can do child fingerprinting,” he said.
Miller said there will be a new safety house inflatable at the event.
“We can put a smoke machine up to it to teach kids to crawl low under the smoke, and it also has different areas in it that tells different fire prevention information,” he said.
He said Hillsboro City Schools will also be bringing a school bus to the event.
“We usually do it in the summer, so some of them are used to the busses already, but they can learn some safety about school buses, and we’ll have some other equipment out there from other organizations so the kids can get up to it and see it and learn about it,” said Miller.
“I encourage the public to attend,” he said. “We’re going to be doing a safe trick or treat so they can come in their costumes. It’s kind of a new thing for us doing it this late in the year.”
Miller said he is happy to have Highland District Hospital participating in the event this year.
“This will be the first time we’ve got to work with them, and we’re really excited about bringing the event back,” he said.
Reach John Hackley at 937-402-2571.
