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Daniel Chacon
BeSafe Tool – Applying Behavioral Science to Fire Safety Education
Daniel Chacon, Assistant Director, Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation
The BeSafe Tool is a procedure based in behavioral science that can be applied to any CRR training program to measure behavioral change in the intended audience. Having an evidence-based tool, such as BeSafe, provides the educator with the ability to not only evaluate and improve training, but also a metric that can be used in providing data on outcomes for your Community Risk Reduction program.
Hear what Daniel has to say on Short Takes from CRR Radio
Ryan Kunitzer
Child Safety Seats From the Ground Up
Ryan Kunitzer, Fire Marshal – Battalion Chief, St. John’s Fire District, South Carolina
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In this fast-growing rural community, vehicle collision injuries and fatalities climbed over ten years. The St. John’s Fire District established child passenger safety as a risk reduction priority and began educating caregivers and families with a special effort to reach Spanish-speaking residents with installation of child safety seats and inspections of seats already in vehicles. In 2017 – 2019, injuries to children in vehicle collisions have been reduced by 19% while the number of vehicle collisions increased.
Kim Stouse
Collaboration Reduces Call Volume to Assisted Living Facilities
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Assisted Living Facility Protocols | Assisted Living Facility Report Card
Pocatello Fire Department/Bannock County Ambulance recognized a significant increase in calls to assisted living facilities which accounted for over 11% of emergency medical calls. Representatives from the assisted living facilities, emergency response organizations, and state officials formed a committee and wrote protocols for calling 911 versus utilizing facility staff. These protocols were adopted by all of the local assisted living facilities. As of March of 2019, calls to assisted living facilities have declined by approximately 50% from the highest year and now represent 4.5% of total medical calls for service.
Listen to what Kim has to say about her presentation on Short Takes from CRR Radio.
Will Broscious
A CRR Approach to Volunteer Recruitment
Battalion Chief William Broscious, Columbia-Richland Fire and Rescue
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Our program is designed to recruit volunteers by taking a different approach. As opposed to simply recruiting volunteers, we began to change our strategy in mid-2018 with a goal to recruit volunteers that can assist our department in various ways. This new approach has led to an increase in our CRR abilities including the successful completion of our first community risk assessment conducted by a local college student that was recruited to join our department as well as an increase in the number of volunteer fire fighters.
Listen to what Will has to say about his presentation on Short Takes from CRR Radio.
Mark Griffioen
Distressed Properties Initiative
Mark Griffioen, Deputy Fire Chief, Surrey Fire Service, British Columbia, Canada
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Distressed properties create costly safety and enforcement problems in communities across the country, while also contributing to long-term neighborhood decline. The program insures property owners take responsibility to secure their property or the city secures the property and bills the owner. Surrey has to date secured more than 560 distressed properties, reduced related fires by two-thirds, and recouped more than $1.5m (100% of costs) from property owners through its Distressed Properties Initiative.
Kevin Sehlmeyer
Educating Today for a Safer Tomorrow
Kevin Sehlmeyer, State Fire Marshal/ Director, State of Michigan Bureau of Fire Services, Michigan
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In June of 2017, the Michigan State Fire Marshal engaged a workgroup to develop a three-year strategic plan that drives a statewide CRR effort that began on January 1, 2018. Michigan installs smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarms, builds partnerships with local fire departments, and collects useful and timely data on every fatal fire. While the program is relatively new, there has been a reduction in fire fatalities in Michigan.
Joshua Fulbright
Fire Safe South Carolina – Statewide Support for Station-Based Community Risk Reduction Programming
Joshua Fulbright, Chief of Community Risk Reduction, South Carolina Office of the State Fire Marshal
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A statewide community risk assessment identified education and resource gaps. Areas of support for local departments were needed to initiate the community risk reduction process and implement fire department or station-based interventions. The Fire Safe South Carolina program unites multiple fire service organizations within the state to engage influential community partnerships to support local fire departments in service to their citizens. Support comes in the form of data, education, and outreach efforts. South Carolina has seen an increase in alarm installations, lives saved from home safety visits, children receiving education, Fire and Life Safety Educator training participation, and overall partnerships for community risk reduction. Improvement has been seen in fire incident reporting quantity and quality, along with a decrease in fire-related fatalities.
Paulette Church
Firewise USA® Site Implementation
Paulette Church, Firewise Site Coordinator, National Fire Protection Association
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Falls Creek, located in Durango, Colorado, is a nationally recognized Firewise USA® site, focusing attention on the “Home Ignition Zone.” In 2018 the community was impacted by the 416 Fire, one of the largest wildfires in Colorado history. The wildfire mitigation actions residents took prior to the fire, working closely with their local fire department, was credited with the survival of every structure in the community with no injuries to emergency responders or residents.
Listen to what Paulette has to say about her presentation on Short Takes from CRR Radio.
Focused Fire Prevention Projects in Tennessee
Greg Adams, Director of Education and Outreach, Tennessee State Fire Marshal’s Office
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Tennessee has historically ranked high nationally in fire death rates. A 2011 University of Tennessee study found correlations between certain demographic characteristics and high rates of fire deaths. Since then, the Tennessee State Fire Marshal’s Office (TSFMO) continued researching the idea that some people have a higher risk for fires than others. Sharing our analysis of local data has been key to helping fire departments understand risks in areas they protect.
Katie Harrington
The Heart of Hub-Cor
Katie Harrington, Firefighter, Worcester Fire Department
Approximately 80 city employees, hospitals, and human service non-profit members originally assembled to create Worcester’s Hub-Cor, a collaborative project to address the needs of the underserved members of our community that have an impact on our service delivery. Hub-Cor is now a meeting of now 22 organizations and an additional 9 in the background that meets weekly to address individuals or families suffering mental illness, homelessness, domestic violence, child/elder abuse or neglect and any other acute elevated risk that may plague the city. The group develops systematic, analytical, and economical safety plan and proposes a means to reduce risk that can be quickly implemented with positive results.
Listen to Katie talking about her program on Short Takes
Joshua Smith
Heart Safe Richland
Joshua Smith, FF/Paramedic, Richland Fire & Emergency Services, Washington
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Number of lives saved and quality of life enhanced are two of the top three key performance indicators that Richland Fire & Emergency Services uses in measuring the department’s ability to “protect and enhance the quality of life.” With a focus of increasing bystander participation in out of hospital cardiac arrest, this program is still too new to quantify its success. However, the data gathered thus far has provided significant support for the need of such a program.
Butch Browning
Information Management Systems and Fire Investigations
H. “Butch” Browning, Louisiana State Fire Marshal
Our innovative IMS system has allowed for better data management and collection for all facets of our agency, especially Plan Review, Building Inspections, Fire Investigations and Licensing Enforcement. The economic component comes with allowing new construction project managers to digitally upload and submit plans and be able to collaborate with our Plan Reviewers and deputies in real-time, throughout the job, to get projects approved and businesses in commerce more efficiently and quicker than ever before. IMS allows for us to better track investigative data for educational purposes and to assist local departments with a bigger picture of their emergency response and needs.
Joseph Casciotti
Mobile Utilization in Re-Admission Reduction
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The Harris County program utilizes the Mobile Integrated Health/Community Paramedicine program to conduct patient follow up to reduce re-admission rates in patients discharged from acute care hospitals with a diagnosis of STEMI/NSTEMI. Patients were managed on a voluntary outpatient basis to ensure medications were taken as prescribed, discharge instructions were followed, and followup with physicians and cardiac rehab were conducted as ordered by the physician. Patients approached but refusing participation had a 12% readmission rate to the hospital within 30 days of discharge while those agreeing to participate in the program had a 4% readmission rate. The participants not readmitted continued to remain out of the hospital months later.
Listen to what Joe has to say on Short Takes from CRR Radio
Vishant Shah
Predicting Future High Utilizing 9-1-1 patients using Machine Learning
Vishant Shah, Memphis Fire Department
One of Memphis Fire Department’s key priorities is providing high quality, responsive emergency care to Memphians. The High Utilizer Group (HUG) is a program implemented by MFD emergency medical service (EMS) that provides outreach and assistance to high-frequency 911 callers, who typically have complex health needs and limited access to non-emergency healthcare. The program aims to increase ambulance availability for urgent medical emergencies by helping patients get connected to more routine services. In 2019, MFD EMS partnered with Data Science for Social Good to build a predictive model to identify potential high utilizers of EMS in an effort to provide more proactive care interventions.
Randy Miller
A Replicable Model for Increasing Voluntary Home Fire Sprinkler Installation
Randy Miller, Deputy Fire Marshal, Camas Fire Department, Washington
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When the local codes did not require home fire sprinklers in Camas, WA, the deputy fire marshal undertook an alternative path to protect new housing in this fast-growing district with voluntary fire sprinkler installation. After twelve years of voluntary home fire sprinkler installations, 98% of the new housing stock was built with fire sprinklers and there were four fires reported as saves. The number of homes built continued to increase and an ordinance requiring sprinkler protection for all new homes passed unanimously in 2016.
Matthew Phillips
SeniorBSAfe
Matthew Phillips, Assistant Fire Marshal, Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services, Georgia
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The SeniorBSafe program helps older adults in Gwinnett County, GA live safer lives at home. A comprehensive community risk assessment in 2016 identified slips, trips, and falls; fire; and poisoning to be the major risks. Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services conducted safety visits with the installation of proven engineering solutions and on-site education. Follow-up home visits occur 6 – 12 months later, checking for issues with the equipment and any life changes. The impact evaluation for this program is excellent, and the outcome evaluation is expected to show impressive results.
Aileen Pettinger
Saginaw: A Sound Off Success Story
Aileen Pettinger, Lieutenant, Saginaw Fire Department, Michigan
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The Saginaw Fire Department was a pilot program in Michigan under the National Sound Off program. This extraordinary curriculum was awarded a DHS/FEMA AFG grant to educate children and their families about smoke alarms via a unique relationship with firefighters. Saginaw firefighters taught the Sound Off program to second- and third-graders in four schools, with a 51.8% knowledge increase (pre-test knowledge measured against post-test knowledge). This is higher than the national average in other pilots of this program. Working with surrounding agencies, the fire departments installed smoke alarms, including bed side alert devices for people with hearing loss, and carbon monoxide alarms in student homes.
Tempe Fire Medical Rescue Patient Advocate Services
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Tempe Fire Medical Rescue Department has taken a successful community paramedicine program and added innovative data analysis techniques to quickly identify likely repeat clients, monitor the program patient’s well-being, and conclusively demonstrate the program’s ability to reduce future EMS calls. Based on calls for service six months before enrollment in the program and six months after enrollment, there has been a 50% reduction in calls for service in the 64% of enrollees with adequate documentation to provide data.
Chelsea Rubadou
Two Years Immersed in CRR: Research Findings
Chelsea Rubadou, CRR Strategist, NFPA
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Over the past 2 years NFPA has been actively assessing the landscape of Community Risk Reduction. They’ve met with a plethora of professionals representing a wide range of CRR interest and engagement to gain a comprehensive view of CRR and learn about the strategies, successes, and challenges present in this space. After collecting this qualitative data, they developed a theoretical framework that describes the status of CRR and tested the viability of strategic actions established for implementers to enhance their efforts. This presentation will highlight major findings of these activities as reported in the upcoming NFPA CRR Whitepaper.
Karla Klas
Using Outcome Data to Create, Sustain, and Expand Youth Firesetting Prevention and Intervention
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Outcome data from a pediatric burn center attributed youth firesetting as a primary cause for a 17% increase in admissions. A data-driven intervention program was developed and implemented with a 0.8% recidivism in youth attending the youth firesetting intervention program vs. 36% in non-program youth. Ongoing analysis has identified changing trends, and program revisions were strategically made based on current evidence-based best practices. Recidivism rates remain stable, and YFS-related burn injuries have dramatically decreased.
Michael Sedlacek
Virtual Reality – The Next Frontier
Captain Michael Sedlacek, Madison Fire & Rescue
In 2018 Madison Fire & Rescue created a Virtual Reality fire education program aimed at educating children about fire risks. We focused on 4th and 5th graders and created a multi-pronged approach program with two VR scenarios and a trailer with iPad kiosks. We partnered with multiple local companies and organizations in developing the program and developed technology solutions that did not exist. Our program includes detailed data reporting and we have seen positive trends in baseline data and knowledge trends.
Listen to what Mike Sedlacek has to say about his presentation on Short Takes from CRR Radio
You can also listen to a longer conversation with Captain Sedlacek on this ground-breaking project on CRR Radio
What do we Know?
Marty Ahrens, Fire Analysis Research Manager, NFPA Applied Research Group
This presentation provides an overview of fire department responses, home structure fires, other types of fire department calls, leading causes of fatal and non-fatal injuries, and a brief introduction to RE-Aim evaluation framework. See the full presentation at nfpa.org/CRR.
Symposium 6 is a partnership between The Vision 20/20 Project and these organizations.
