By Tom Kiurski
Once again, fire departments across America will have the spotlight available as they recognize Fire Prevention Week 2005, which is scheduled for October 9-15. The theme for this year’s Fire Prevention Week is candle safety, and the official slogan chosen by the National Fire Protection Association is “Use Candles with Care”. The NFPA chose this theme based on the increase in fired resulting from candles during the past decade. The options we have to educate our community are as wide open as your imagination allows.
Use this Fire Prevention Week as an opportunity to reach out to new audiences in your community. If you haven’t spoken to certain citizen groups lately, give them a call and offer your services as a guest speaker at a future meeting. Consider other groups in your area, such as senior centers, businesses, and health care facilities, in addition to schools.
Also consider contacting your local cable or major television network. There may be some slower news days when they can squeeze in a few fire safety tips from the local fire department.
Ask your local newspapers they will accept a safety piece written by your fire department spokesperson. If they hesitate, offer to sit down with one of their journalists who can write the article, drawing upon your experiences to bring out safety tips for the readers.
Topics to cover at this time of year may include a historic piece about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and how many of the dangers present at that time still exist today. You may want to note how the tragic losses from this fire led to the development of a National Fire Prevention Day in 1920, followed by National Fire Prevention Week in 1922.
You can also use a case study about a candle that started a fire, using visual aids, such as a candle holder or pictures of damage caused by a candle-started fire, to bring home your point. Any of these topics can be easily researched at the NFPA’s Web site.
This is also a great time for some standard fire safety lessons as well. Emphasize home fire escape planning and the use of smoke alarms, CO alarms, and fire extinguishers. Review personal fire safety behaviors, such as “Stop, Drop and Roll” and “Crawl Low under Smoke”. You may have discussed these topics before, but they need to be continually reinforced to make the behavior permanent.
Tom Kiurski is a lieutenant, a paramedic, and the director of fire safety education for Livonia (MI) Fire & Rescue. His book, Creating a Fire-Safe Community: A Guide for Fire Safety Educators (Fire Engineering, 1999) is a guide for bringing the safety message to all segments of the community efficiently and economically.
