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Fire Prevention and Public Education
I'm relatively new to Firefighter Nation, but I'm noticing an unfortunate trend--this site seems to be geared toward the "fun" aspects of firefighting, i.e. structural firefighting, vehicular rescue and the like. It makes me wonder what the main thrust of Firefighter Nation is supposed to be; is it a training and informational resource, or is it a firefighters' MySpace, existing only for storytelling and socializing? Time will tell, but I'd like to get a discussion going on prevention and public education in rural communities. Does your volunteer department provide fire prevention and education services? If so, how? Does it impact your emergency response capability at all?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on
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Fun...?? Well I/we do love our work...But, believe me it is a LOT of work as well....and yes we have a very active education/fire prevention program...we do station walk throughs, school visits, pre-plans for area businesses,and one hell of a lot of training....this site allows us to agree to disagree on many subjects...and sometimes we actually learn from another department new ways to do something or even trigger thoughts on a better mouse trap so to speak...You will find some agitation here (we love to get someone going)... some true feelings for someone going through a bad time looking for a shoulder to lean on....and some jokes and funny tales...its all part of the "Brotherhood/Sisterhood" involved in this line of work.....doesn't matter if you are paid or volunteer...the beast is always the same.....Stay safe ...keep the faith........Paul
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Permalink Reply by T.J. on
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I could have not said it any beeter Paul :) If you do a search you'll find a lot of topics on fire prevention and awareness. Yes my department does a lot of it and we find it to be great p/r and a great tool to teach the public about fire and use.
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Permalink Reply by Station10Capt106 on
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I'm from a small Indiana town in the middle of Amish country. Fire Prevention is one of my favorite activties to do. I've went to the elemetary schools every year for the past 15 years to teach them. A few years ago the local day cares started calling me to come to their class to talk to their children too.
We have 28 members on our dept and every year we have about 5-7 that are able to make arrangements with their work to take off the days we are at the schools. If a call comes in while we are there we take off and go on the call. If we have some newer members that are not able to respond to calls yet they may be left at the school to finish the class.
Our department also will go into local businesses and provide a short fire prevention and education program for the employees. Local service clubs and churches have had us come to their meetings to present a small program.
The main point for us teaching children is to stress fire prevention and safety. Our focus on presenting to adults (while still stressing the prevention & safety) is more aligned with increasing the communities awareness of who we are and what we do. Public relations can make or break a department (especially a small one where you depend on community support for fundraisers and such to purchase needed items).
The more we are out in the community doing non-emergency things, the greater the publics perception is of us. If they are more aware of us they will support us more and can help increase our response time as more people become aware of what a blue light means and will yield the right of way.
John
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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on
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I've long thought there should be a forum category for Fire Prevention & Pub. Ed.
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Permalink Reply by Mitchell Fire Company on
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I think it's a good thing that the group here thinks that public education is a positive in that it raises community awareness of the fire department, but to me that's still too limited of a scope, especially in a small town. Take the village I live in--my "off day" fire department. We essentially a bedroom community for a nearby city, and those who don't work in the city are employed in agriculture (i.e., farmers or truck drivers). If a fire happens in the middle of the day, usually by the time it's discovered the building is untenable. Some firefighters would say, "Well, that's a response/staffing/training issue," but I disagree. Response and staffing are two things by and large out of the control of a rural department--by that I mean, if people aren't there, they simply aren't there. As for training, it takes no great skill to stand on a master stream out in the street. The real issue is, or should be, that there's been a breakdown in education or engineering; those are things very much in the control of even a small volunteer department. If all we can scrape together on a Wednesday afternoon are three guys and an engine, or we worry about who's coming on mutual aid, or we know our town has small, old water mains, then our approach to providing service needs to be that the best fire is the one that we never have to respond for. Rightly speaking, every fire department in the country ought to be out there trying to legislate, educate, inspect and enforce themselves out of a job, but if you say that to certain people they tend to get their backs up.
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Permalink Reply by Jenny Holderby on
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Actually yes, this is somewhat like a myspace or facebook for firefighters & EMS. We chat, make friends, share stories AND discuss common issues among us. Much of what we discuss is sharing training ideas as well. We discuss safety issues & the color of fire apparatus and other topics.
When I searched the "groups" I found SEVERAL groups dedicated to both Fire Prevention and to Public Education depending on how you search for them. This particular section is General Firefighting & Rescue Discussion but you can post Fire Prevention here too. If you want more discussion on specific topics, search the "groups" tab to find what you are most interested in.
Fire Prevention/Public Education isn't a dirty word in the fire service anymore. Not only does it prevent loss to the community, it prevents firefighter injuries & deaths.
My department started our Fire Prevention program about 15 years ago with Stop, Drop & Roll. We were awarded the NFPA Champion Award for fire prevention programs. We have expanded our efforts and fire prevention is now taught as part of the curriculum in the local schools during the month of October. The current program being used is the NFPA Risk Watch geared to the different grades being taught.
Included in our annual mailer that goes to every household in the township to solicit donations, we include a reply card where folks can request smoke detectors which we will deliver and install. We inspect all local businesses, schools and many churches, from those inspections we develop pre-planning for alarms.
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Permalink Reply by Jay Nicholson on
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Any dept, whether volly or paid, is really missing a great opportunity if they are not doing public ed. School tours were by far my favorite activity.(probably because it was the only time the chiefs let us slide down our poll.) I don't think public ed is too hard for even the smallest of depts.
Unless you have a lot of time on your hands, prevention is another matter.
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Permalink Reply by Joseph Maritnez on
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As a PIO for both a private firm and for my vfd, I cannot stress enough the importance of public education. Because my coverage area does not have any schools and is predominantly rural, the department focuses more on burn ban notifications, on the job injury (agricultural machinery operation dangers). Now, I can send out 2,500 brochures to every address in the coverage area telling them to pay fire dues and most folks just let them sit on the fridge. I really take the approach that contact with members of the department and members of the community goes a long way. We hand deliver burn ban notices and when we have a fire (grass or structural) I always try to find a couple of members to go to property owners in the area around the incident and hand out information packets about the department. The "personal touch" takes a little more time, we usually do it on a saturday, but the community has recieved it warmly. When people know what they're paying for it really helps the department. We've seen a rise in both dues and donations. I'm also trying to put together a program with osha on ag. hazards. Stay Safe.
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Joseph, Please don't mistake our mailers as the only fire prevention we do. We are out in the community doing all types of public service including notices & safely burning brush piles & issuing permits or NOT issuing them. A PERSONAL touch is very important. We also make reflective address signs & hand out 911 stickers and a number of other activities such as visiting civic leagues & organizations. The mailer goes to every mailbox, rural or suburban so we reach everyone at some point between these & the fire prevention in the schools.
Being out in the community is very important and is why we park cars at football games and at the fair. It is why we participate in a Safety Day and/or other special activities in the township like volunteering during clean up day or having Boy Scout meetings at the fire station as well as several other community events.
Hire a fireman is part fund raiser part PR. Any fund raising activity is a perfect opportunity for public relations and fire prevention. Public Relations & Public education go hand in hand. A fire department has to be visible in the community to gain respect and support from the people and to make them realize that their fire department is on duty even when there are no fires.
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Permalink Reply by Tony P on
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"Mitchell Fire Company". I'd prefer it if we were talking to a person, even a nickname comes accross as a person. But a 'Company'? As a couple of other posters have said 'Mr Company', have a better look through the site. Yes there's a lot of crap topics, but there are also a lot of good ones. Including public awareness. And for your information, my Fire Service regards prevention as being more important that cure. Satisfied?
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"Fire Prevention/Public Education isn't a dirty word in the fire service anymore. Not only does it prevent loss to the community, it prevents firefighter injuries & deaths". - Jenny Holderby
Well said, Jenny.
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No need to sound defensive; my opinion of the site is as valid as the next person's. As for the name, I spend time here for work and (hopefully) information sharing. While I think networking is important, I didn't join Firefighter Nation to be anyone's buddy. Good for your department, emphasizing fire prevention: but in my area you'd be the exception, not the rule. I think we can all agree that's something that needs to change.
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