This document discusses the importance of public fire safety education and planning effective education programs. It outlines key aspects of developing programs including using local fire statistics to identify target audiences, designing messages tailored to those audiences, implementing programs, and evaluating their effectiveness in changing behaviors. The document also highlights the role of the media, schools, and public hearings in disseminating fire safety messages to various groups.

1. Fire Prevention Through Public Education, Awareness, and the Public Forum Chapter 10

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. FIGURE 10-6 The Five-Step Process for Public Fire Education was developed by the U.S. Fire Administration in 1979

11. Identification U se 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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