With assistance from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Institution of Fire Engineers US Branch has established a steering committee comprised of noted fire service and related agency leaders to guide a national strategic planning process for the fire loss prevention that results in a national plan that will coordinate activities and fire prevention efforts. This steering committee is called Vision 20/20. The website is www.strategicfire.org.


This project involves a large number of participants representing all areas of fire prevention as well as other advocates and stakeholders to the plan and its recommended outcomes.
This project is committed to action, with a few strategic recommendations being converted to a national plan that stakeholders will be asked to support with documentation of specific actions and benchmarks instead of a long list of recommended practices that everyone agrees are important (but then never get completed).
This project will not create recommendations in a vacuum. Other existing efforts that have identified significant progress toward achieving prevention goals will be taken into account to avoid competing efforts.
A long term monitoring mechanism will provide regular reports on the progress of the strategic initiatives that arise out of Vision 20/20.

Previous national plans for fire protection have had a great deal in common. President Truman's 1947 Report on Fire Prevention, to the landmark report America Burning, first completed in 1973, and subsequent national reports from Wingspread, Solutions 2000 and others, a common theme for increasing efforts in fire prevention are always emphasized as a key component to the fire safety problem in the United States.

A subgroup (Task Force)--of the Vision 20/20 committee mentioned above--has been established and one of its goals is to raise or embed the importance of fire prevention/risk management within the fire service. As a beginning stepping stone, you are being asked to be part of this important process. Included herein is a link to a survey which will help define where we currently stand with regard to national fire prevention efforts, and specifically within firefighter recruit training programs. Thus, this survey, which should consume a minimal amount of time to complete, is vital to beginning a new phase of learning for the US fire service. It is imperative that we get as much input from all corners of the Nation as possible, so please participate or pass the survey on to an authority responsible for recruit training. The deadline to complete the survey is July 10, 2009.

The survey link is: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=8TEJkzZU3OnJai1HoPbWLA_3d_3d

Should you have questions regarding this survey, please contact the following: Bill Kehoe, KehoeFD@aol.com Vision 20/20 and survey direction; Steve Nash, bc129@sbcglobal.net survey content/clarification.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

For your participation, a copy of the results will be made available for you.

(source: http://www.everyonegoeshome.com/news/2009/2020Survey.html).