Illustration from Sesame Street Fire Safety Station in 1996
Sesame Street Fire Safety Project is an outreach project devised by the Children's Television Workshop in 1979, in conjunction with FEMA and the U.S. Fire Administration. The project was created to educate children about various aspects of fire safety, from recognizing hot and cold objects to the proper way to escape from a fire-laden building, using characters from Sesame Street.
The Workshop crafted a series of materials to send out to educators and professionals in the field of fire safety. These materials included information on how to teach children about certain topics, scripts for routines the educators could perform (as the Muppet characters), and even specially-produced audio recordings. The materials have been re-issued and updated several times since.
In conjunction with the project, walk-around versions of Ernie and Bert have appeared in live shows, performing an original routine with the voices of Jim Henson and Frank Oz.[1] A special fire safety show aired in some southern states in September 1982 to educate adults about the program and effective ways of educating children on the topic.[2]
Resource kits[]
- Sesame Street Fire Safety Resource Book (1982) - The first edition of the project's printed resource materials. The book came with a vinyl record with original songs.
- Sesame Street Fire Safety Book (1988) - The second edition, with updated information and includes a cassette with new original songs (and repurposed ones).
- Sesame Street Fire Safety Station (1996) - The third edition with even further updates, including a cassette with all-new stories and songs (including songs from the previous kits). The materials for this edition were also produced in Spanish.
- Sesame Street Fire Safety Program (2015) - Rather than a book, all-new materials were made to be reproduced physically and digitally. These updated materials include separate guides for families and educators and activity workbooks for children. Select audio material from the previous resource kit is also included (and in some cases re-recorded).