Wednesday Fire Safety Program Tip

One of the things that I learned early on as an educator, was the importance of knowing where to find fire related statistics. At the time, I wondered how this could be helpful, but it didn’t take me long to realize that knowing the fire problem in my area was the key to my fire safety efforts.

There are many resources out there, but wanted to share one of my favorites. The United States Fire Administrations Fire in the United States (15^th Edition) report provides a statistical overview of fires in the United States and is designed to equip the fire service and others with information that motivates corrective action, sets priorities, targets specific fire programs, serves as a model for State and local analyses of fire data, and provides a baseline for evaluating programs.

The report is free and can be downloaded at http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/statistics/fa_325.pdf.

In addition, this report can be very helpful when you are writing grants and looking for some stats. It is a critical piece of my fire safety programming and if you haven't used this valuable tool, I hope that you find it useful.

If you already use the Fire in the United States report with your fire safety efforts, I’d love to hear how it has benefited your program, so that I may share it with others here on the Playing it Safe blog on Firehouse.com.

Before I go, I would like to share a picture of the newest addition to our fire safety team, Siren, demonstrating how to stop, drop and roll to students at Clarksville Primary School. Siren is 5 months old and already has about 15 fire safety programs under his collar. Since bring Siren home in September, I forgot all of the training that was involved with my first two Dalmatians, Sparkles and Spanner, but I am loving every minute of it. Each day Siren brings joy to my life as we begin the adventure of sharing fire safety together.

And while I am on the subject of Siren, he’d love for you to join his Facebook page! http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Siren-the-Fire-Safety-Dog/150506418318143

Until next time, stay safe!