BY TOM KIURSKI
Many fire departments have excellent fire and life safety education programs. However, there is always room for improvement. If your department is lacking in this area, here are some ideas that may help. If your safety programs are doing well, here are some additional tips.
Getting new programs started takes a lot of work. The best way to avoid burnout and frustration is to get more people involved. Although it takes a driven person to take the lead, the old saying that many hands make light work certainly applies here.
Step back and take a look at the effectiveness of station tours and school visits. Our trucks and tools are attention getters, but do you incorporate safety education with every program? This is about education, not just entertainment. A great program contains elements of education and entertainment in just the right amounts.
Ask your fellow firefighters how good their fire department is at reaching out to the community. Most programs are a direct result of someone’s contacting their fire department; reaching out means taking that first step.
One effective way to reach out is to write articles for local newspapers and make yourself available for related interviews. This doesn’t refer just to a fire but during quiet times as well. Topics can be seasonal, such as tips on bicycle and heating safety. Others can be general safety items that can be run at almost any time, such as smoke alarms, escape plans, and fire extinguisher use. Call your local newspaper, ask for the local editor, and set up a meeting to explain that you want to get the safety messages out. Be open to suggestions the staff may make; they may suggest a reporter to write the article and include some quotes from fire department members. That works well; but with their busy schedule, they may prefer that you write the articles and they will put them in the paper as time allows. If the topic is timely, let the editor know this when you send the article to him; give him plenty of time to schedule it.
If this works, assign other firefighters topics to research for additional articles; this places more potential topics into the readers’ hands. You can do more than one article on a subject; we have written about smoke alarms many times. Discuss the number of smoke alarms recommended in homes and their installation and maintenance. You can also discuss local smoke alarm installation codes. We wrote a recent article about the new vocal smoke alarms recommended for homes with young children; the children can awaken to a parent’s voice instead of outside noise they tend to tune out. You can also outline your department’s smoke alarm giveaway program and how citizens can participate.
In Livonia, Michigan, in addition to newspaper articles, we also produce a children’s fire safety section that goes out with our local newspaper at the beginning of Fire Prevention Week in October; it is an eight-page insert that emphasizes a safety item on each page. The information is reinforced with puzzles, word searches, and coloring activities.
We also produced a community newsletter aimed at safety elements for adult audiences. Copies are distributed to area homes, fire stations, city hall, libraries, and senior centers. An electronic copy is available from the city Web site under the fire department heading. (To view ours, go to http://ci.livonia.mi.us/ and then use the drop-down menu for Departments and click on Public Safety. On the left side of the page, click on the Fire Departmentlink and then, again on the left, click on LFR Newsletter.)
Many fire departments have stuffed animals in EMS vehicles to give to children during stressful moments. Kids love them, and the parents love that we go the extra mile for their children. Many community organizations pay for their fire department’s stuffed animals, as this program has had many positive aspects.
Fire trucks are starting to show up sporting safety messages; this is a great way to promote safety by simply driving around on your daily duties. In Livonia, magnetic signs created by a local company are applied to staff cars. They can be used during daytime hours or during special safety weeks, such as Fire Prevention Week. We had eight signs made up (two per car, for four cars) for about $500.
March is National Reading Month. How does this concern firefighters? Most schools seek community leaders to read to children during school hours and explain how reading is important to their job. Send out a letter to your schools and let them know that you are available.
With some imagination, you can promote safety during the holidays. We set up a Halloween safety table at our Fire Prevention Week open house (very timely, since Halloween is a few weeks after). Our Halloween safety table included safety bookmarks, flashing battery-operated necklaces, reflective trick-or-treat bags, a pumpkin recipe, and some creepy decorations. Other fire departments have Santa arrive on a fire truck and visit neighborhoods, host Santa at the fire station, and take part in Christmas parades.
Also, work on one presentation to give to businesses and another for residents. Discuss the basics, tailored to adult audiences at work or home.
Other great ideas include car seat safety inspections, fire safety messages on grocery store bags and billboards, highway cleanup programs (the fire department’s name is seen by thousands of drivers on their stretch of the highway), first aid training, CPR training, defibrillator training, fire extinguisher classes, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training, and citizen fire academies, to name a few.
Don’t hesitate to get started in fire safety education. Pick some programs from the above list, get some friends involved, and get started. If you have existing programs that need retooling, discuss them, make some changes, and try them out. Divide the work up among the members, set some timelines, and keep all members on a time schedule. Most importantly, have some fun!
TOM KIURSKI is a 27-year fire service veteran and the training coordinator for Livonia (MI) Fire and Rescue. He has authored more than 200 fire safety magazine articles. He has an associate’s degree in fire science, a bachelor’s degree in fire and safety engineering technology, and a master’s degree in public administration. He is also a Michigan state-certified fire instructor.
