Chapter 10

© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning

2nd Edition

Fire PreventionThrough Public

Education, Awareness,and the Public Forum

Chapter 10


2nd Edition

Objectives

Upon completion of this chapter, you will be able to:

•Discuss and contrast the use of local and national fire statistics in developing fire safety education programs

•Describe the impact of America Burning on the role of fire departments in public fire safety education


2nd Edition

Objectives (cont’d.)

• Describe the five-step process for public fire safety education planning and discuss the importance of planning in the development of fire safety education programs

• Discuss the role of the media in public fire safety education


2nd Edition

Public Fire Safety Education—Selling Fire Safety

• To reduce the incidence of hostile fire– Public support/cooperation are necessary– After only a few calls to the principal from

angry parents• Fire safety education is no longer a welcome topic

• At 85, odds of dying by fire will be nearly five fold over that of a 20-year-old person


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Education, The Second “E”

• “Engineering, education, and enforcement”– Slogan still used around the fire service

• For a fire safety message to be effective– Public must personally identify with it

• Translating the abstract into concrete– Involves putting faces on the victims


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FIGURE 10-2Education is the second of the Three E’s.(Courtesy of New York University)


2nd Edition

National Fire Prevention Programs

• Fire Prevention Day first observed: 1911

• President Harding proclaimed the first Fire Prevention Week: 1922

• Over two million copies of Safeguarding the Home Against Fire distributed to schools: 1918

• Over two million copies of Safeguarding the Nation Against Fire distributed: 1930


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Planning Fire Safety Education Programs

• Must target audiences that can have an impact on the jurisdiction’s fire problem

• Local statistics should be carefully reviewed

• Planning: crucial to program success

• People: backbone of the program


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The Five-Step Program

• Developed/released by the U.S. Fire Administration in 1979

• Step-by-step process to walk planners through each phase

• Available free of charge from the USFA’s Publications Center

• Steps: identification, selection, design, implementation, and evaluation


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FIGURE 10-6The Five-StepProcess for PublicFire Education wasdeveloped by the U.S.Fire Administrationin 1979


2nd Edition

Identification• Use fire records/statistics to detect most

serious fire problems in the community– High-risk groups have not necessarily have

suffered losses in recent past

• Undertake thorough review of local, regional, and national statistics

• Good cooperation among department and state agencies beneficial


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Selection

• Target audiences must be selected

• High-risk persons may not necessarily be the target audience– Programs target children/seniors caregivers

• Key element: identification of available material and human resources


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Design

• Actual program developed for presentation to target audience.

• The message is packaged into the delivery system for the target audience in step 2– Commercials played by radio stations– Presentation to live audience– Program designed to be handed off and

presented by another group or groups


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Implementation

• Program may have to be adjusted or tweaked

• Feedback may reveal opportunities not anticipated

• Fire safety educators must be able to:– Think on their feet – Make adjustments to ensure the message is

delivered, received, and accepted


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Evaluation

• Not final step– The process is a loop or a cycle

• View of how the program affected changes in awareness, knowledge, or behavior

• Mechanism to make changes to increase effectiveness of the program

• Use of tests or surveys before and after the program


2nd Edition

Fire Safety Education in the Schools

• Long recognized as effective method of instilling fire-safe behaviors/attitudes in children

• America Burning (1973) recommendations:– Accreditation standards for fire safety

education in schools– Fire safety education for teachers– Knowledge of fire safety prerequisite for

teaching certification


2nd Edition

Commercial Fire Safety Programs• In most cases, the most effective method

of providing complex programs

• NFPA’s Learn Not to Burn® and Risk Watch®: fire/injury prevention for children

• Remembering When: A Fire and Full Prevention Program for Older Adults™

• Not cheap

• Play Safe! Be Safe! for children ages 3-5


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Fire Safety Education for Adults

• Accomplished through the media

• “Change your clock, change your smoke detector battery”– The message does produce results– Enhanced by children asking about smoke

alarms

• Fire Prevention Week messages and press releases by NFPA/USFA


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Fire Safety Education for Businesses

• For some businesses, fire codes mandate:– Employee and occupant training– Development of emergency plans

• Fire prevention bureaus should develop boilerplate plans to be filled in by business owners– Take the guesswork out of preparation


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Motivating Adults• Effective methods: planning, training, drills

• Building occupants evacuated much more quickly on 9/11 than during 1993 bombing

• Bombing made occupants to take the WTC fire safety plan/drills more seriously

• Fire safety education after fatal incidents– One of the few ways to bring good out of bad– Should be considered a tribute to the victims


2nd Edition

Effective Use of the Media

• News reporting/information dissemination– Potential for reaching the largest audience

• If accurate information not available– Media resorts to less-than-accurate

information from unofficial sources

• No better platform than the fire scene to deliver message of fire safety


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Public Hearings

• Fact of life for public officials

• Fire chiefs must justify their budgets in public hearings before elected officials

• Fire prevention bureaus become involved:– During hearings on code adoptions– At hearings before appeals boards

• Hearings often televised


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Hearing Preparation

• The more time spent in preparation for public hearings, the less that can go wrong

• State and federal Freedom of Information and Sunshine laws– Prohibit deliberation of elected officials except

in duly advertised public hearings

• Fire department managers should have a good working knowledge of the regulations


2nd Edition

Summary

• Fire safety education more about sales than education

• Public fire safety education not a modern phenomenon

• 1973 America Burning report recognized as a watershed for fire safety education

• Media a critical element in delivery of effective fire safety education programs

Chapter 10

Business

Transcript of Chapter 10