FIRE SAFETY CONTEST AWARD PREVENTS REAL FIRE
SUNNYVALE, Calif. – On April 27, 2004, Smruthi Sriram stood at the podium in Sunnyvale City Council Chambers being recognized as one of the winners in the 26th Annual Sunnyvale Fire Safety Poster Contest. As first place winner in the second grade division, Smruthi was awarded a fire extinguisher by Mayor John Howe and Kiwanis Club of Silicon Valley President Norm Betts.
Little did she know how important this award would be.
At 6:49 p.m. on Monday, May 17, Sunnyvale emergency operators received a call of an oven fire in a North Mathilda Avenue apartment. When firefighters arrived on the scene, they found the fire had already been extinguished … by the same extinguisher Smruthi had won only three weeks earlier. While there was no fire damage to the apartment, smoke from the fire had to be ventilated by public safety officers.
Smruthi’s mother, Chitra Sriram, said "I turned on the oven and then stepped away. A few moments later I heard a loud ‘pop’ and ran back to the oven. I quickly turned it off and told my daughters to go outside to safety." As smoke began to stream from the oven, her husband, Sriram Chandrasekaran, grabbed the fire extinguisher from the counter and sprayed it into the oven. When firefighters arrived, they found a lot of smoke, but the fire had been extinguished.
Chitra Sriram was very happy her daughter had won the fire extinguisher in the fire safety contest. "I always thought we should have a fire extinguisher, but we had never gotten around to getting one."
Second-grader Smruthi, when asked if she ever thought the family would need to use the award, replied "Yes, sometime we might have to." Smruthi’s winning poster proclaims "firefighters are your friends," a fact the family has learned all too well.
"This was really a case of good timing," said Acting DPS Chief Mike Maehler. "Of course, we would prefer there not be a fire in the first place, but the entire purpose of our annual Fire Safety Poster Contest is to raise awareness among kids and their families about fire safety. Kiwanis Club of Silicon Valley and the Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce, both of whom have partnered with the City, along with the schools and our own public safety officers, have worked hard on this program, making it very successful."
Mayor Howe commented on the value of the awards themselves, saying "Kiwanis Club of Silicon Valley should be applauded for handing out truly usable awards, like fire extinguishers and smoke alarms. Rather than just hanging a certificate on the wall, we have just seen how the award itself stopped a fire."
Smruthi attends Bishop School in Sunnyvale.