Welephant is a red elephant cartoon character with a fireman's helmet, originally used as a mascot by

fire brigade A fire department (American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and fire suppression se ...

s in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

to promote fire safety to children. Since 1989, however the character has become the mascot for the Children's Burn Trust. Welephant2

Welephant Fire Safety Pledge

Creation of Welephant

Welephant was created for the Greater Manchester Fire Service in order to promote awareness of the dangers of fire to the local school children. A competition was set where pupils of the local schools submitted drawings of a possible mascot that the fire department could use. The competition was won by 12 year old Susan Buttner, whilst she was a pupil at St Michael's School, Rochdale.

Going National

Through popular demand, Welephant went National and was used by fire & rescue services throughout the

to promote fire safety to the pupils of primary schools in their local area.

Charity Name Change

In 1996 Welephant Club Inc was changed to The National Fire Safety Charity for Children.

Current status

Most Fire & Rescue Services now use their own individual mascots and cartoon characters to teach children about the importance of fire safety. During the late 1990s / early 2000s Welephant was gradually phased out from UK Fire Service merchandising and safety campaigns, but he continued to be used extensively as the Mascot for the National Fire Safety Charity Since Welephant the popular

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

(until early 2008),

HIT Entertainment HIT Entertainment Limited (commonly written as HiT) was a British-American entertainment company founded in 1982 as Henson International Television, the international distribution arm of The Jim Henson Company, by Jim Henson, Peter Orton, and Soph ...

and S4C Stop Motion/CGI Character

Fireman Sam ''Fireman Sam'' (Welsh: ') is a Welsh animated children's television series about a fireman named Sam, his fellow firefighters, and other residents in the fictional Welsh rural village of Pontypandy (a portmanteau of two real towns, Pontypridd ...

has been used by the UK Government in various fire safety campaigns aimed at young children. Other characters such as 'Frances the Firefly', 'Adam Alarm' and others have also been used. Welephant is currently the Mascot of the Children's Burn Trust. In the fifth episode of the first series of the TV firefighting drama series '' London's Burning'', Leading Fireman Malcolm Cross wears a Welephant costume for a fire station open day.

Notes and references

{{Reflist, 2

External links

Official Website
Fictional elephants British mascots Mascots introduced in 1989 Male characters in advertising Animal mascots