Help please-The Challenge- How to plan a fire prevention program for a community

[superchef]

Sorry. Changed my mind about the question and post.

[DeputyChiefGonzo]

Sherry... I would start with..

an outline of the community, with square mileage, number of residents in both daytime vs night time population, types of residencies (single family, two family, condominium and partment complexes, commerical, industrial and retail occupancies.

Demographics of the residents, broken down by age groups.

The Fire Department in the community, number of stations, apparatus, personnel, average response times, and the number of incidents per year.

The fire problem in the community: are the fires caused by arson, inluding juvenile firesetters, cooking, careless disposal of smoking materials, aging housing infrastructure, etc.

The present fire prevention program. with its successes and shortcomings or in some cases a total lack thereof.

The new program:

Identify your target audiences based on demographics.

Where will you present the program? Schools, senior centers, and open houses in conjunction with a partnership with a local merchant who happens to sell fire extinguishers, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are excellent venues.

Identify the methods used to present the program ( hint: local access cable tv stations are always looking for programming and guest columns in the local newspapers are always welcomed!)

Identify the methods used to evaluate the program for example, an analysis of the program based on the statistics for fires in the community, questionnaires at the end of a presentation for adults, pre and post testing for school age children and general feedback from the media ( has the local cable access station recieved any requests from the public to run the program again? Is there any feedback in letters to the editor in the local newspaper?)

I hope this helps!

[superchef]

Thank you Captain Gonzo!.

I was putting the question out here because as much as I am learning, I still do not have the day-to-day real life experience that all of you have. What is on paper does not always translate to what actually works and what is needed. That is why I come to my friends here although I wanted to change the way the post was worded and you can't delete a thread anymore and start over later.

My original question is that for my final research paper I have to discuss how to plan a fire prevention program for a specific community and the fire prevention challenges of that community. I thought I would pick Glenn Dale since when I was there Chief Woods gave me some great insight that I had never considered when planning fire protection. He also mentioned that there was a new planned community going on so the added challenges of that would make for a good discussion paper (at least I think so).

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I will be making notes and using them to do my research. The final paper has to be 12-15 pages in length so it will have to be fairly comprehensive and keep me busy for the next weeks.

[FireH2O]

Try this website:

http://www.firepreventionofficers.org/

Go to the "Committees" page (look for the link on the left side of the page). Then click on the "Public Education Committee" button. You can read the minutes of the committee to get ideas and names of contacts - they are in your "backyard" and will probably be willing to help.

Good Luck.

[superchef]

Thank you H20. Great link. I will follow up on it.

[skyraider]

You know, Cheffie, there was news clip the other day about a local community against having a new fire station built although it was budgeted for and in the plans. Community complained that the location was in the middle of town and would cause too much traffic and noise. I can't seem to find anything on the web about it, but I'll keep looking...if I find it I'll post it or email it to you. I think it may give you some insight on planning challenges.