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Emmitsburg, MD - In 2006, the Institution of Fire Engineers (US Branch) was awarded a Fire Prevention and Safety Grant to develop a comprehensive national strategy for fire prevention. In October of 2008, a document entitled Vision 20/20: National Strategies for Fire Loss Prevention was published. In it, five strategies were presented as providing a way for the United States to address its troubling fire loss record. These strategies included:
- Strategy 1: Increase Advocacy for Fire Prevention
- Strategy 2: Conduct a national fire safety education/social marketing campaign
- Strategy 3: Raise the importance of fire prevention within the fire service
- Strategy 4: Promote technology to enhance fire and life safety
- Strategy 5: Refine and improve the application of codes and standards that enhance public and firefighter safety and preserve community assets
One of the strongest commitments of the Vision 20/20 project was to seek partners and work cooperatively within the fire service to address the issues highlighted in the strategies. Teams were developed to oversee each area.
Strategy 3, concerning awareness within the fire service is very akin to the 14th Firefighter Life Safety Initiative (Public education must receive more resources and be championed as a critical fire and life safety program.) So, it was easy to imagine that a natural partnership existed here. The Everyone Goes Home® program was eager to pursue this alliance, so on December 10th, 2008, a group met at the National Fire Academy to begin developing Strategy 3 & Initiative 14.
Chief Ron Siarnicki, Executive Director of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, hosted and welcomed the group to the Emmitsburg campus. He reviewed the importance of the Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives and the natural nexus between fire prevention and firefighter survivability. The group, which included fire service leaders from across the country, began the morning reviewing the Vision 20/20 document that excellently lays out the state of fire prevention in the United States. Experts from the U.S. Fire Administration (both past and current) explored social and political currents in the United States that influence public policy regarding fire prevention. Fire department members contributed ideas about the culture of the fire service that does not always promote fire prevention as an agency-wide goal.
By the end of the day, several ways to support Strategy 3 had emerged, including the idea of conducting one or more demonstration projects to explore new ways of promoting the value of fire prevention within the fire service. More information about these projects will be released through the Everyone Goes Home® website at www.everyonegoeshome.com. If you want to learn more about the Vision 20/20 project read the report at http://strategicfire.org/08report.pdf.