For grown-ups

What this is

Polka Dot Firehouse is a make-believe neighborhood firehouse, painted white with big black spots so it looks like Pepper, the Dalmatian pup who lives there. Freddy, Frieda, Captain Gus, Grandpa and Mittens the kitten belong to it too.

Kids come here to play short games, watch two narrated stories and print coloring pages. Each one carries a real fire-safety habit: test the smoke alarm, know two ways out, get low and go, get out and stay out.

• It's generic. It isn't a real fire department, city or patch, so any family, school or department can use it.
• It's free. No accounts, no sign-ups, nothing to buy to use the site.
• No ads and no tracking. No analytics, no cookies. The only things we save are the sound setting and the pictures your child colors on the site, and both are saved only on this device.

Printables for home and class

Every page prints on regular 8.5 × 11 paper, in color or black and white.

• Coloring pages43 pages: big-and-easy for little hands, detailed for older kidsBrowse
• Activity packsMazes, dot-to-dots, crosswords and secret codes for ages 3–5, 6–8 and 9–12, with answer keysBrowse
• Color it hereTap-to-fill coloring on a tablet, no printer neededOpen
• Fire Safety Picture Bingo30 cards, calling cards with a safety fact for each picture, ages 3–8PDF · 230 KB

For the family escape plan, the smoke alarm test tracker and the safety posters, see the Color & Print page. The nine posters also have an accessible text version.

For fire departments

Running an open house, a school visit or a story time? Here is a whole event, ready to print. Everything is generic on purpose: no department names, patches or logos. Write your department's name, date, time and address in the blanks, and it's yours.

The Polka Dot Firehouse Safety Day kit

Kids move through eight short stations, get a stamp at each one on their Polka Dot Passport, say the Safety Promise together and go home with a certificate. It runs about 30 to 40 minutes for a group of 8 to 10 kids, ages 4 to 10, with one firefighter or volunteer per station.

1. Gear Up!
2. Hose Drag
3. Knock It Down
4. Crawl Low
5. Stop, Drop, and Roll
6. Call 9-1-1
7. Firefighters Are Friends
8. Beep Test

• Organizer guideSet-up and run-it notes for every station, a supply checklist and safety notesPDF · 919 KB
• Accessible text version of the organizer guideThe same guide as a web page, plus the words of the station signs and the Safety PromiseWeb page
• Station signsOne big sign for each of the eight stationsPDF · 3.4 MB
• Polka Dot PassportA stamp box for every station, 2 per pagePDF · 27 KB
• Polka Dot Safety Promise posterFor the finish linePDF · 598 KB
• Fire Safety Star certificateWith a blank for each child's namePDF · 42 KB
• Name tags8 per pagePDF · 22 KB
• Junior Firefighter badges9 per pagePDF · 66 KB

Flyers with blanks to fill in

• Polka Dot Firehouse Safety DayInvite families to your eventPDF · 755 KB
• Fire Station Open HouseDate, time, address and phone blanksPDF · 748 KB
• Fire Prevention WeekPDF · 836 KB
• Story Time with FirefightersFor libraries and schoolsPDF · 546 KB
• Is Your Smoke Alarm Working?For a smoke alarm check dayPDF · 510 KB
• Accessible text version of the flyersEvery flyer's words, its picture described and its blanks listed, starting with Is Your Smoke Alarm Working?Web page

Door hangers, address cards and bingo

• Fire safety bookmarksFour tips to cut out and hand out: stop, drop, and roll; get out and stay out; test your smoke alarm; firefighters are friends. 4 per pagePDF · 309 KB
• Smoke alarm door hangers“We stopped by!” with boxes to tick: tested, new battery, new alarm. 2 per pagePDF · 184 KB
• Accessible text version of the door hangerIts words, its tick boxes and its picture describedWeb page
• My Address cardsFor kids still learning their address, 8 per pagePDF · 22 KB
• Fire Safety Picture Bingo30 cards plus calling cards, great for a crowdPDF · 230 KB
• Paper helmet craft, to colorKids color it, cut it out and wear itPDF · 21 KB
• Paper helmet craft, in colorReady to cut out and wearPDF · 21 KB

Need more? The Color & Print page has every coloring page, activity pack and safety poster, and they're just as free to hand out.

How we check the facts

Kids remember what they hear in a story, so the story has to be right. Our safety tips, on this site and in the videos, games, printables and books, follow published guidance from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the U.S. Fire Administration. These are our sources:

• NFPA, the National Fire Protection Association: the Educational Messages Desk Reference (2026 edition, PDF), plus NFPA's smoke alarm guidance and escape planning guidance
• USFA, the U.S. Fire Administration (FEMA): its Home Fire Safety brochure (PDF), its fire safety guidance for children and smoke alarm guidance, plus its fire dynamics course slides (PDF) and a National Fire Academy research paper on thermal imaging cameras (Carnegis, 1999), hosted by USFA (PDF)
• UL FSRI, the UL Fire Safety Research Institute: its “Close Your Door” research and its old versus modern furniture fire tests
• The American Red Cross: its “If a fire starts” guidance
• NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, for fire science basics: its glossary entries for the fire triangle and the fire tetrahedron

The fire words (engine or ladder truck, turnout gear, the air pack and the rest) were reviewed against fire service references and trade sources, and the wording is careful where departments do things differently. For example, we say the air pack holds compressed air, never oxygen, and we say “many towns” when a custom isn't universal. You can see every word on the Fire Words page.

Books by Vincent Milo, Jr.

Four books set in the Polka Dot Firehouse: a fire words picture book, a read-along ABC, a big story-and-activity book and a puzzle book for ages 8 to 12. They're coming soon in paperback.

See the bookshelf