Fire Prevention—just what do those two words mean? Well, for Larry Steiber, Fire Inspector, and Arthur Berlanga, firefighter, it means literally putting on a new face and transforming themselves into fire safety clowns "Steamer" and "Tutti".

Their clowning act is nothing short of sharing a serious message with a touch of humor and enthusiasm—the way the kids like and remember it. They take their responsibility in preparing and performing equally as serious. They each spend a minimum of two hours to create "Steamer" and "Tutti" for each presentation and have spent many hours to create and improve costumes, props, the production program, and they have personally contributed to the expense needs.

Though their characters create laughter, their purpose, which is to help prevent accidents and save lives, is no laughing matter. For example, Tutti runs around the stage attempting to put out the "fire" that has engulfed his clothes while Steamer emphasizes that no one should ever run while their clothes are on fire, but should STOP, DROP, and ROLL.

The fire safety clowns, as they refer to themselves in their skits, teach children safety awareness and techniques that could someday make a difference for themselves as well as for others. They communicate their message through "real life" scenarios and lots of audience participation.

Their main goal is to send this message to children between the ages of 5-8 years old. Elementary schools have provided the majority of their target audience. Their intent is to continue to educate and promote safety awareness throughout the community by using innovative methods such as "clowning." One of their goals is to expand their performance to include hand puppets and other fire safety clowns as well. Though the performers and characters may change, the goal remains the same, preventing accidents and saving lives.

Just how did this all start? In August of 2000 Larry and Arthur were given the opportunity to attend a public education conference held in Arcata, California that taught uncommon fire safety methods for educating the public. During their educational period they were exposed to "clowning", different presentation styles and methods for teaching children. They became inspired to incorporate their newly discovered means of communication toward educating the children of Salinas.

Since that initial exposure to "clowning" both Larry (Steamer) and Art (Tutti) have embraced their passion to teach children in such a way that it would make a difference - and it has. They developed a program that incorporated the National Fire Prevention Week’s* theme "The Great Escape" and enhanced the program with other safety instructions. In the beginning, their goal was to reveal their newly created performance throughout National Fire Prevention Week and determine the program’s impact. Their performances were a success. Throughout National Fire Prevention Week and during the entire month of October 2000 a minimum of 5,000 children were taught the message of how to plan and execute a safe home fire escape plan and other fire safety techniques by the fire safety clowns. Since then approximately two presentations per month have been performed at various public and private elementary schools within Salinas. The success of the program has been measured by the enthusiasm and appreciation expressed by those who have attended the program, both children and adults alike.

For further information and/or contributions for this program please contact the Salinas Fire Prevention Bureau at 758-7261. Or, use this form to contact Fire Services.

*National Fire Prevention Week is celebrated each year in commemoration of the Great Chicago Fire during the month of October. The Great Chicago Fire occurred October 8-10, 1871. The fire killed at least 300 people and left more than 90,000 people homeless and caused more than $200 million in property damage.