Fire Prevention Week Begins with UFD Family Night

The Urbana Fire Department starts National Fire Prevention Week (October 8 – 14, 2023) with their annual event, Urbana Fire Community Risk Reduction Family Night, or what is commonly known as “UFD Family Night.”

Bring the family and meet-up with neighbors and friends at UFD Family Night which will be held from 2 to 5 p.m., October 8, 2023, at the Lincoln Square Mall southeast parking lot.

This year’s theme is “Cooking Safety Starts with You.” Cooking brings family and friends together. It provides an outlet for creativity and can be relaxing. However, cooking fires are the number one cause of home fires and home injuries.

Kids of all ages will enjoy the emergency and responder vehicles that will be on hand as part of the TOUCH-A-TRUCK portion of the event, as well as FREE Kona Ice for kids aged 12 and under (from 3 to 5 p.m.), a DJ playing those hot tunes that are “fire,” the ever-popular and locally famous Smith Burger Company food truck, sign-up for a free smoke detector, family-friendly photo-ops, and much more.

The Urbana Fire Department will address hot topics and more. UFD will have six educational stations that focus on educating the public about cooking safety. Later UFD will light up the night with a CONTROLLED LIVE FIRE DEMONSTRATION at 4:30 p.m. to end the day’s festivities.

Other features will be:

• The Urbana Police Department focusing on “risk”
• The Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District centering on pedestrian and bicycle safety
• Carle Arrow Ambulance and the Carle Critical Care Team emphasizing emergency medical care 
• METCAD showing how to effectively call 9-1-1 in a demonstration
• Tatman’s Towing featuring an accident display
• The brave young men of the Urbana High School Football Team will be on-hand assisting the demonstrations and event-goers