LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Recently, the Lexington Fire Department made its choice on a new Junior Fire Chief, selecting a 5th grader from Veteran’s Park Elementary School as the 2024 competition winner.
“Owen's presentation was so well done,” said Chief Jason Wells of Owen Ives. “It hit on the importance of smoke alarms, gave statistics, and talked about how smoke alarms work,” Chief Wells continued.
Owen was “pinned” as Junior Chief, and a few speakers spoke about his presentation before a packed gymnasium of his class and schoolmates on Tuesday morning. Owen was overcome with emotion from the ceremony, but it was obvious that he was proud of his achievement. So was his father, Josh.
“Really excited for him,” Mr. Ives said. “It's an important message to the community.”
Mr. Ives thinks it’s more than likely that Owen picked up on the importance of having working smoke detectors by observing what he’s seen at home.
“We always do an annual battery check,” he said.
Owen will get a chance to experience many aspects of the fire chief’s day-to-day life as he will be visiting with different fire houses in town, and city landmarks. He will also attend a LFUCG council meeting this Thursday with Chief Wells, during which he’ll have a chance to meet Mayor Linda Gorton and the city council members.
“He's going to be spreading his message about smoke alarms along the way,” Wells said.
“This is such a great program for us gives us a chance to reach the young people in a unique, innovative way,” Chief Wells said.
Chief Wells said so many Lexington residents are killed in fires that would’ve been prevented if the home or apartment had a working smoke detector. He also invited the public to call on his department to install or inspect smoke detectors to make certain they are working properly.
With daylight saving time ending next month, this is a good time of year to make sure those smoke alarms are functioning.
