Didnt know where else to post this, wonder if we could get a topic on this to share some ideas. Yeah I know most firefighters arnt a big fan of this topic, cause it dosnt deal with fighting fires or rescues.
This is October and fire prevention week is coming up, course at BFR it is considered fire prevention month, we spend just about all month in the school system teaching.
I do most of the teaching to kids with disabilities. My wife spent 10 years working with a company that took care of people with disabilites, and I spent allot of time with them and they became family, so when it came to working with kids, I just fit right in....maybe cause same IQ level is my wifes suggestion.
IDEA'S
Here is some we use
power point game with a projector and smart board, usally 5th and 6th graders
Puppet show 4th grade and lower
Different grades, using orange slices to talk about differnt burn levels and how to treat (and u get to eat the orange slices is best part)
Class speaker putting on the gear and so forth.
Big kids, class speaking and blunt honesty, slide show
Out Of The Box
Yearly event, we have command staff meetings from time to time, its all 4 Chiefs and all 10 captains 9 paid and the tenth is our volunteer captain/chaplin.
Each year every captain has to present a OOTB idea from thier crew. Has to be public safety/education orientied. Low cost.
couple things that have come out of it, 1 crew made a fire station mail box (complete with bay doors and fire trucks) to put in elementry school for kids to write letters to FF, and they were divided up between the crews to answer.
Door hangers to hand out about home fire inspections and what to look for.
Smoke alarm program
Public service annoncments on local radio station
I attended the NFA this past year for a pub ed type of course, I'm not in pub ed or prevention and really don't do much more in it than the station tours, rig to a school/ safety house type of activity. The class, like most at the NFA, was very informative and there were definately great ideas that came out, I brought many back to our pub ed officer which has helped him with ideas as well.
The problem with fire prevention week is that most programs are geared towards children, but statistacally looking, how many adults die in fires each year? Some issues brought forth in the class was targeting different causes of fires at age ranges, from candle fires geared towards teens/young adults, to smoking fires etc. Some ideas that came out of the calss are:
Use of billboards....we learned that like radio and TV, billboards also have to run a PSA type of message for very little cost. This year for our dept, we held a coloring contest for different age groups of children, the pictures were judged and the winner gets a ride to school on a fire engine and their picture is put on a billboard in the city.
Local TV...There is a recent vidoe out there that has just started running on the local cable channel here, about how quickly fire conditions change, the difference between Hollywood and real life etc. It is more than just geared towards kids.
Safety house....we have one for the county and our pub ed officer will bring it to schools etc and do fire prevention. The kids sit through a demonstartion on cooking, severe weather, how to get out and so forth. At the end smoke starts coming into the kitchen and they have to get out, there is a heated door they have to feel and then make their way out the bedroom window. A rig is sometimes sent along for these tours and one of us will dress out in PPE and help lead the kids out.
Other Ideas that came out:
Neighborhood tours of a fire home....This came up in the class, where a house damaged in a fire would be open for neighbors to see what destruction can happen due to fires, to make a reality check. They can smell the smells, see the soot marks, the damage etc. The issues here though is the house has to be stable, this couldn't be a fatality or injury, but is a way to give a reality check.
Also check on YouTube, there are many ideas on fire prevention on there. One of the guys in class Barry Brickey from TN, has done a lot of pub ed stuff and videos are on YouTube. Very good for some ideas.