Dogs teach fire safety: Kasey, Carmel bring life-saving lessons to southern Indiana students

SEYMOUR, Ind. —

When most kids learn “stop, drop, and roll,” they don’t learn it from dogs, but now they can. Kasey and Carmel, two black labs, travel the country with retired firefighter and paramedic Jeff Owens, turning core fire-safety skills into lessons students never forget.

Owens launched the program in 1994, using his dogs to demonstrate fundamentals like stop, drop, and roll, and checking a door for heat before opening it.

“We’ve taught more than 9 million kids since we started the program 35 years ago, and I can’t imagine not doing it,” Owens said.

This week, the team stopped in Seymour, Indiana, visiting Seymour Intermediate School.

“The dogs teach them how to do it, I think makes, makes it even more so more important because they, they’re not learning as much from me, they