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12 July 2024
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Featured FRI Magazine article: Can public fire safety education reduce deaths and injuries? by Rodney Eksteen (FRI Vol 2 no 6)
A general awareness of fire should be instilled in the people of a community, adults and children alike
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By teaching children the skills of fire prevention and survival, adults of the future will be safer. Communication between the entry team and the rescue team on the outside will be crucial to ensure that the raising operation goes smoothly
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Skilled public fire safety education includes knowing how to listen and talk
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https://www.frimedia.org/uploads/1/2/2/7/122743954/final_vol2no6_lr.pdf
This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: Can public fire safety education reduce deaths and injuries? written by Rodney Eksteen (FRI Vol 2 no 6). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
Can public fire safety education reduce deaths and injuries?
By Rodney Eksteen
The fire problem
The complexity of fire prevention and control has increased dramatically with the construction of larger, more closely spaced structures and an ever-increasing population, which, even today, does not understand the constant danger fire presents to them.
According to the Integrated Strategic Framework for the Prevention of Injury and Violence in South Africa, March 2012, Pretoria, South Africa has one of the highest levels of death and disability from injury in the world. The burn mortality rate of 8,5 per 100 000 is greater than the world average of 5 per 100 000 and the African region of 6 per 100 000. Billions of Rands are consumed every year due to fire and many lives are taken.
One needn’t look very far to find a sensational story of the death and destruction caused by fire. One recent tragedy that comes to mind, broadcasted extensively by the media, was the New Year’s Day fire in the sprawling township of Khayelitsha in Cape Town. However, each one of us knows of many more incidents that have occurred unnoticed by the media.
One look at all the commonly listed causes of fire and burns indicates that human carelessness is, indeed to blame. Examine all fire and injury causes and you will find a wrong human behaviour of some sort, either accidental or intentional, behind most incidents.
Reduction of fire deaths in the United States
The National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control in the United States published a significant report in 1973 called America Burning. In this report it is mentioned, “Among the many measures that can be taken to reduce fire losses, perhaps none is more important than educating people about fire. The population must be aware of the magnitude of fire’s toll and its threat to them personally. They must know how to minimise the risk of fire in their daily surroundings. They must know how to cope with fire, quickly and effectively, once it has started. Public education about fire has been cited by many commission witnesses and others as the single activity with the greatest potential for reducing losses.”
In the preface of the Public Fire Education manual it clearly states, “The fire service must share the greater part of the responsibility for the public attitude toward the fire problem. If we are to reduce the incidence and severity of fire, it must be achieved by methods other than the conventional attack by fire suppression forces.”
Before the early 1970s approximately 12 000 people were being killed annually in residential fires throughout the United States. By 1972, the Federal Government, under the direction of President Richard Nixon, had studied America’s fire problem and produced a landmark report entitled America burning. The report called for an integrated approach to fire prevention using a combination of preventive interventions.
It took until the mid-1980s for residential fire deaths to fall to an annual occurrence of between 4 000 and 6 000. Over the next twenty years, this rate would drop even further. According to the US Fire Administration (USFA), 3 320 civilians lost their lives as a result of fire in 2008. This is a momentous achievement, considering that the population of the United States mid 2008 was 305 million (PRB datasheet 2008).
Fighting fire with education
One of the most dangerous fire hazards in the country is the attitude that ‘It won’t happen to me’. We know, however, that it can and does happen at the rate of thousands yearly. Because this attitude does prevail, one of the primary responsibilities of a fire department is to acquaint the public with the fire problem and then to educate them on how to avoid and survive the tragedies of fire.
A general awareness of fire should be instilled in the people of a community, adults and children alike. By teaching children the skills of fire prevention and survival, adults of the future will be safer. Children will also very likely take home fire safety skills and education, and perhaps influence parental behaviour to some extent. Training teachers in fire safety is aimed at having maximum impact for minimal cost by reaching many children. Therefore the fire department has a responsibility to teach people fire prevention and survival skills, which can save their lives. This responsibility cannot be fulfilled during one week, which is designated as ‘Fire Prevention Week’. It must be an all year-round, day-to-day effort.
Fire fighters must have an awareness of the overall fire problem as well as all the prevention and survival measures that can be taken, so that they can pass it on to the public. Each department must learn everything possible to help the public in their designated communities and teach them so that they know how to protect themselves. It is far better to meet a smiling and excited child in a fire safety education classroom than to meet a burned and dying child on the fire ground. The practice of knowing how to prevent something from happening and then waiting for things to go wrong and then respond to sort out the mess, can be considered as criminal or negligent at the very least.
Having said this, many fire departments make significant contributions to public education, through inspections and cooperation with the community and schools. The very fact that these efforts come from the fire department heightens public awareness on fire safety. What is still needed is a well-coordinated, structured educationally-based approach, so that weak efforts can be replaced by efforts of proven effectiveness.
Often a fire department has the opportunity to have children come into the station for tours. Many times the only thing that is accomplished with this opportunity is an explanation of the vehicles in terms that are unfamiliar to the children. Showing a fire engine is an important part of an overall fire safety programme, however, it cannot take the place of proper fire safety education. Often fire fighters on light duty are assigned to conduct these tours and visit schools, before happily returning to their ‘real’ jobs. Specific training and education is not readily available to the fire fighters responsible for these tours or school visits and much of the information delivered to the public is based on their operational training and experiences.
Today’s fire fighter must become a communicator of facts relating to the causes, hazards and survival of fire. Skilled public fire safety education includes knowing how to listen and talk; how to see that the message is being received and transmitted. Skilled techniques are as important as the message itself. Just as the fire fighter is trained in the nuts and bolts aspects of their profession, we also need to be trained in effective public fire safety education. Deciding carefully what to teach and how to teach it successfully to the public takes training, research and continuous evaluation. Such training should be at the core of any fire department’s fire safety education commitment.
The fire and life safety educators programme
Fire and life safety educator training is designed to impart the skills and knowledge necessary to design, develop, implement and evaluate comprehensive public safety education programmes intended to eliminate or mitigate situations that endanger lives, health, property or the environment.
NFPA 1001, Standard for Fire Fighter Professional Qualification, requires new fire fighters to have the skills to deliver a public education presentation from a prepared lesson plan. NFPA 1021, Standard for Fire Officers, specifies the requirement of the ability to deliver presentations and also to develop a department public education programme. The most recent performance, training and evaluation requirements for fire and life safety educators is included in the 2010 edition of the NFPA 1035 standard for professional qualifications for fire and life safety educator.
These skills can be included in job descriptions and specified as a prerequisite for promotion. Every emergency service provider is a public educator at some level and can benefit from public education training.
The primary target of this programme are those who practice and provide public fire safety education, including permanent and volunteer emergency service personnel and others from outside the service. The purpose of this programme is to educate the educator to be able to apply his or her knowledge and skills to many different areas all under the ‘umbrella’ of community risk reduction (CRR).
Community risk reduction is a growing profession, both inside and outside the fire department. Some practitioners are uniformed fire fighters, disaster management officers and others are civilians that have identified the need. Still others work for non-government organisations, health departments and so on. The fire and life safety educators programme will most certainly contribute to the fire department’s war against fire and significantly aid in the saving of lives.
Conclusion
There needs to be more emphasis on the prevention of fire and its destructive consequences. Fire departments, many of which confine their roles to putting out fires and rescuing its victims, need to expand more effort to educate children and adults on fire safety. Many fires caused by faulty equipment rather, than carelessness, could be prevented if people were trained to spot the faults before it’s too late. Many injuries and deaths could be prevented if people knew how to react to a fire, whatever its cause.
Finally, It must be realised that not everyone will respond to or even be reached by public fire safety education, but I firmly believe that if conducted effectively, it can contribute significantly to the reduction of the fire losses in South Africa as well as benefit the fire service positively at a local as well as national level.
This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: Can public fire safety education reduce deaths and injuries? written by Rodney Eksteen (FRI Vol 2 no 6). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
Can public fire safety education reduce deaths and injuries?
By Rodney Eksteen
The fire problem
The complexity of fire prevention and control has increased dramatically with the construction of larger, more closely spaced structures and an ever-increasing population, which, even today, does not understand the constant danger fire presents to them.
According to the Integrated Strategic Framework for the Prevention of Injury and Violence in South Africa, March 2012, Pretoria, South Africa has one of the highest levels of death and disability from injury in the world. The burn mortality rate of 8,5 per 100 000 is greater than the world average of 5 per 100 000 and the African region of 6 per 100 000. Billions of Rands are consumed every year due to fire and many lives are taken.
One needn’t look very far to find a sensational story of the death and destruction caused by fire. One recent tragedy that comes to mind, broadcasted extensively by the media, was the New Year’s Day fire in the sprawling township of Khayelitsha in Cape Town. However, each one of us knows of many more incidents that have occurred unnoticed by the media.
One look at all the commonly listed causes of fire and burns indicates that human carelessness is, indeed to blame. Examine all fire and injury causes and you will find a wrong human behaviour of some sort, either accidental or intentional, behind most incidents.
Reduction of fire deaths in the United States
The National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control in the United States published a significant report in 1973 called America Burning. In this report it is mentioned, “Among the many measures that can be taken to reduce fire losses, perhaps none is more important than educating people about fire. The population must be aware of the magnitude of fire’s toll and its threat to them personally. They must know how to minimise the risk of fire in their daily surroundings. They must know how to cope with fire, quickly and effectively, once it has started. Public education about fire has been cited by many commission witnesses and others as the single activity with the greatest potential for reducing losses.”
In the preface of the Public Fire Education manual it clearly states, “The fire service must share the greater part of the responsibility for the public attitude toward the fire problem. If we are to reduce the incidence and severity of fire, it must be achieved by methods other than the conventional attack by fire suppression forces.”
Before the early 1970s approximately 12 000 people were being killed annually in residential fires throughout the United States. By 1972, the Federal Government, under the direction of President Richard Nixon, had studied America’s fire problem and produced a landmark report entitled America burning. The report called for an integrated approach to fire prevention using a combination of preventive interventions.
It took until the mid-1980s for residential fire deaths to fall to an annual occurrence of between 4 000 and 6 000. Over the next twenty years, this rate would drop even further. According to the US Fire Administration (USFA), 3 320 civilians lost their lives as a result of fire in 2008. This is a momentous achievement, considering that the population of the United States mid 2008 was 305 million (PRB datasheet 2008).
Fighting fire with education
One of the most dangerous fire hazards in the country is the attitude that ‘It won’t happen to me’. We know, however, that it can and does happen at the rate of thousands yearly. Because this attitude does prevail, one of the primary responsibilities of a fire department is to acquaint the public with the fire problem and then to educate them on how to avoid and survive the tragedies of fire.
A general awareness of fire should be instilled in the people of a community, adults and children alike. By teaching children the skills of fire prevention and survival, adults of the future will be safer. Children will also very likely take home fire safety skills and education, and perhaps influence parental behaviour to some extent. Training teachers in fire safety is aimed at having maximum impact for minimal cost by reaching many children. Therefore the fire department has a responsibility to teach people fire prevention and survival skills, which can save their lives. This responsibility cannot be fulfilled during one week, which is designated as ‘Fire Prevention Week’. It must be an all year-round, day-to-day effort.
Fire fighters must have an awareness of the overall fire problem as well as all the prevention and survival measures that can be taken, so that they can pass it on to the public. Each department must learn everything possible to help the public in their designated communities and teach them so that they know how to protect themselves. It is far better to meet a smiling and excited child in a fire safety education classroom than to meet a burned and dying child on the fire ground. The practice of knowing how to prevent something from happening and then waiting for things to go wrong and then respond to sort out the mess, can be considered as criminal or negligent at the very least.
Having said this, many fire departments make significant contributions to public education, through inspections and cooperation with the community and schools. The very fact that these efforts come from the fire department heightens public awareness on fire safety. What is still needed is a well-coordinated, structured educationally-based approach, so that weak efforts can be replaced by efforts of proven effectiveness.
Often a fire department has the opportunity to have children come into the station for tours. Many times the only thing that is accomplished with this opportunity is an explanation of the vehicles in terms that are unfamiliar to the children. Showing a fire engine is an important part of an overall fire safety programme, however, it cannot take the place of proper fire safety education. Often fire fighters on light duty are assigned to conduct these tours and visit schools, before happily returning to their ‘real’ jobs. Specific training and education is not readily available to the fire fighters responsible for these tours or school visits and much of the information delivered to the public is based on their operational training and experiences.
Today’s fire fighter must become a communicator of facts relating to the causes, hazards and survival of fire. Skilled public fire safety education includes knowing how to listen and talk; how to see that the message is being received and transmitted. Skilled techniques are as important as the message itself. Just as the fire fighter is trained in the nuts and bolts aspects of their profession, we also need to be trained in effective public fire safety education. Deciding carefully what to teach and how to teach it successfully to the public takes training, research and continuous evaluation. Such training should be at the core of any fire department’s fire safety education commitment.
The fire and life safety educators programme
Fire and life safety educator training is designed to impart the skills and knowledge necessary to design, develop, implement and evaluate comprehensive public safety education programmes intended to eliminate or mitigate situations that endanger lives, health, property or the environment.
NFPA 1001, Standard for Fire Fighter Professional Qualification, requires new fire fighters to have the skills to deliver a public education presentation from a prepared lesson plan. NFPA 1021, Standard for Fire Officers, specifies the requirement of the ability to deliver presentations and also to develop a department public education programme. The most recent performance, training and evaluation requirements for fire and life safety educators is included in the 2010 edition of the NFPA 1035 standard for professional qualifications for fire and life safety educator.
These skills can be included in job descriptions and specified as a prerequisite for promotion. Every emergency service provider is a public educator at some level and can benefit from public education training.
The primary target of this programme are those who practice and provide public fire safety education, including permanent and volunteer emergency service personnel and others from outside the service. The purpose of this programme is to educate the educator to be able to apply his or her knowledge and skills to many different areas all under the ‘umbrella’ of community risk reduction (CRR).
Community risk reduction is a growing profession, both inside and outside the fire department. Some practitioners are uniformed fire fighters, disaster management officers and others are civilians that have identified the need. Still others work for non-government organisations, health departments and so on. The fire and life safety educators programme will most certainly contribute to the fire department’s war against fire and significantly aid in the saving of lives.
Conclusion
There needs to be more emphasis on the prevention of fire and its destructive consequences. Fire departments, many of which confine their roles to putting out fires and rescuing its victims, need to expand more effort to educate children and adults on fire safety. Many fires caused by faulty equipment rather, than carelessness, could be prevented if people were trained to spot the faults before it’s too late. Many injuries and deaths could be prevented if people knew how to react to a fire, whatever its cause.
Finally, It must be realised that not everyone will respond to or even be reached by public fire safety education, but I firmly believe that if conducted effectively, it can contribute significantly to the reduction of the fire losses in South Africa as well as benefit the fire service positively at a local as well as national level.