Fire Prevention Week is anchored to the week containing October 9 — the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire. Buyers are municipal fire departments, volunteer companies, school districts, insurers and state fire marshals. Almost all of it goes to elementary school visits and open house days at the station.

Everything is for a seven-year-old

The ranked list is fire truck stress balls, plastic fire helmets, buckets, stickers and Smilez pens, and it’s right. This is a children’s audience being taught one or two things they need to remember — stop drop and roll, get out and stay out, know your meeting place. The item’s job is to carry that sentence home.

Plastic helmets are the classic and still the most photographed thing on the table. Buckets work as the carrier for everything else and get reused in the classroom.

Stickers do the most per dollar

Junior firefighter badge stickers cost almost nothing, get applied instantly, and get worn for the rest of the school day in front of every other class. For a department covering multiple schools on a small budget, this is the highest-reach item available.

Put the message on the parent-facing item

The child gets the helmet; the fridge magnet is for the adult. Smoke alarm battery reminders, the department’s non-emergency number, a home escape plan checklist — those belong on the magnet or the sticker that goes home in the backpack, not on the toy. Two items, two audiences, one visit.