The Okotoks Fire Department had a busy day yesterday, as they hosted an open house to kick off Emergency Preparedness Week.

Deputy Fire Chief, Dwight Seymour says their goal is to educate people.

"Well this is the kick off to emergency preparedness week.  What we want people to be, is prepared and alert.  What we've got here, is a bunch of our emergency preparedness equipment. SO everything from our sand bagging machine, to our boats that we have, to our water rescue and command trailers."

Deputy Chief Seymour says, It was a full family event, with plenty to keep the kids occupied including the fire hall mascot - Sparky.

"We have Sparky out here to greet the kids, but what we're trying to do is just educate people on being prepared. Seymour shares "So they need to be prepared to have a 72 hour kit, they need to be self sufficient for 72 hours, so we've got a lot of information on what to have in that kit, or how to build that kit, or even where they can order or buy a kit from."

Some of things that many people don't think about when they're putting together a kit, is fairly basic, but Deputy Chief Seymour says it's common things that are easily missed.

"Some of the most important things that people forget about are, if they do have any medications, they need to have enough for not only 72 hours, but they also may not be able to get medications for another 5 -6 days. The other thing that's important is papers and documents.  If you have to leave in a hurry, and something happens to your home, you'll want to make sure you have all of your papers and documents in there."

For safety tips, or instructions on how to put together a 72 hour emergency kit, click here.