National Fallen Firefighters Foundation News Release


Video: Preview Resource Kit Volume 4

Emmitsburg, MD - The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) through the Everyone Goes Home® Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives Program is proud to announce the release of the Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives Resource Kit Volume 4 to over 35,000 fire departments nationwide in August 2009.

An initial release of 1,000 Volume 4 kits will take place on Thursday, July 23, 2009 at the opening session of Firehouse Expo in Baltimore, Maryland. These valuable training materials will be presented to attendees following the debut of the FDNY Legends video, which is also contained on Volume 4.

Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives Resource Kit Volume 4 is the latest in the Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives Resource Kit series, which began in the summer of 2006. Through this newest kit, the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation continues its mission in developing effective tools that will work as a catalyst in reducing firefighter line-of-duty deaths across the country.

Aimed at providing specific tools for departments to use in promoting and advocating cultural change within their organization, the Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives Resource Kit Volume 4 highlights safety, leadership, managing risk, accountability and personal responsibility. By design, this resource kit can be implemented at any level in the organization as well as utilized as an educational tool down to the company level in any department.

Over the last 10 years, according to the United States Fire Administration, there have been 1,090 firefighter deaths and nearly 822,000 injuries. The leading causes of death have been heart attacks and strokes (47%), followed by deaths from crashes responding to or returning from incidents (25%). The most unfortunate thing that these statistics show the fire service is that these numbers are predictable, and in many cases, preventable. The lessons that we learn from these tragic incidents serve the fire service best if they are used as the basis of preventing future deaths. . The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation created the Everyone Goes Home® program, based on 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives, to reduce the number of preventable firefighter line-of-duty deaths.

Departments that have received previous versions of the Firefighter Life Safety Resource Kit will receive this latest addition by mail starting in August. Departments that have not received a kit previously may request Volume 4 online at: www.EveryoneGoesHome.com. Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives Resource Kit Volumes 1 - 3 are also available online for viewing and download at: www.EveryoneGoesHome.com/kits

About the Everyone Goes Home® Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives Program
Everyone Goes Home® is a national program by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation to prevent line-of-duty deaths and injuries. In March 2004, a Firefighter Life Safety Summit was held to address the need for change within the fire service. Through this meeting, the 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives were produced and a program was born to ensure that Everyone Goes Home®. For more information about the Everyone Goes Home® Program visit www.EveryoneGoesHome.com or contact us at 1-877-344-0361.

About the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF)
The United States Congress created the NFFF to lead a nationwide effort to remember America's fallen firefighters. Since 1992, the nonprofit foundation has developed and expanded programs to honor fallen fire heroes and assist their families and coworkers. With the support of fire and life safety organizations and funding from Fireman's Fund and the Department of Homeland Security, the NFFF launched a major initiative to reduce firefighter deaths. Its goal is to reduce line-of-duty firefighter deaths by 25 percent in five years. For more information on the Foundation and its programs contact us at 301-447-1365 or visit www.firehero.org.