Borough hosting safety fair

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The borough is holding a Safety and Preparedness Fair Sunday, from 12 to 4 p.m., at Naugatuck High School on Rubber Avenue. –FILE PHOTO

NAUGATUCK — A rescue helicopter is scheduled to land Sunday on the football field at Naugatuck High School. Bicyclists will perform tricks and a Christmas tree will burn.

Those are just some of the events on the agenda for this year’s Safety and Preparedness Fair, the first ever hosted by the borough. The High Rock Shooting Association put on a similar fair in the past but has not done so for about four years.

After Hurricane Irene and last year’s fall snowstorm battered the area, borough employees began planning a safety day in September, which is National Preparedness Month. Similar events are taking place all over the country this month, Deputy Fire Chief Ellen Murray said.

“The goal of this is to educate people so that they could be self-sufficient in an emergency,” Murray said.

Organizers are hoping to attract hundreds, as the shooting association did, Murray said.

Borough departments and outside organizations are all donating their time to the fair, which will take place between noon and 4 p.m. on the Rubber Avenue high school’s grounds. In case of rain, the fair will be moved under the high school’s overhang and some events will not take place.

The LifeStar helicopter from Hartford Hospital will land at about 1:30 p.m., depending on the weather and any emergency calls the pilots might receive. People will be allowed to look around inside the helicopter.

The only cost to the borough were the raffle prizes — a small generator, smoke detectors and emergency kits — totaling between $500 and $600, Murray said. The money came from a fire prevention and education grant the fire department received last year from FMGlobal, an insurance company, Murray said.

The event will feature a “bicycle rodeo,” where in addition to performing a few tricks, police officers will bring bicycles and set up a course with cones to let children test their bicycle skills, said Lt. Robert Harrison of the Naugatuck Police Department. They will also be issuing child identification cards, giving drug awareness lessons and signing senior citizens up for the Good Morning Naugatuck daily check-in program, Harrison said. State police will be on hand with a car crash simulator.

The fire department will have informational materials and a “safety house” to teach children the best way to escape a fire, Murray said. They will light a Christmas tree on fire to demonstrate how quickly it burns when not properly watered, Murray said.

Jane Doe No More will hold self defense demonstrations, emergency crews will demonstrate a vehicle extrication and Griffin Hospital staff will have a van with blood pressure screenings, Murray said. The agenda also includes free popcorn, a bounce house and vendors with hot dogs and ice cream.

“There’s something for everyone,” Murray said. “I just hope that whatever interest somebody has, that they come to it and look at everything.”