NFPA Urban Fire Safety Project

Urban Fire ForumOctober 21, 2011

Sharon GamacheProgram Director

High-Risk Outreach Programs

Purpose of Urban Fire Safety Task Force

• To examine the unique challenges facing fire and life safety educators in large cities with populations of 250,000 and more. 

• Develop strategies to address those challenges and share them with large city fire departments. 

• Implement the recommendations of the 2007 Urban Fire Safety Report in cities.

Urban Fire Safety Task Force

20 Cities in 2010

Atlanta, GA Baltimore, MD Charlotte, NC Chicago, IL Cleveland, OH Columbus, OH Dallas, TX El Paso, TX Hamilton, ON Kansas City, MO

Louisville, KY Los Angeles, CA Memphis, TN Milwaukee, WI Minneapolis, MN Philadelphia, PA St. Louis, MO St. Paul, MN Tulsa, OK Washington, DC

History of Project

Project Implementations

Columbus, Ohio

Cleveland, Ohio

Hamilton, Ontario

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

El Paso, Texas

Partnerships with Housing Organizations

Preventing Arson Together Preventing Arson Together

Remembering When Train-the-Trainer Sessions

Presentations to Older Adults

Meetings with immigrant leaders

Immigrants

Easy to read flyers Escape planning

Cooking

Electrical Safety

Heating

9 languages

Analyze numbers of deaths and residential fires by census tract.

Community outreach to learn what residents have to say regarding effective delivery of fire safety information.

History of Project

El Paso, Texas

NFPA team building

Remembering When Train-the-Trainer Session.

2010/2011 Urban Fire Safety ProjectEl Paso, Texas

Outreach to neighborhoods of Burgundy/Lancaster and San Juan

Focus groups in high-risk communities

Remembering When Train-the- Trainer

Hired DLG research to conducteight focus groups: four in Spanish and four in English -

Older Adult, 65-80 who live in their own houses or apartments

Lower income working parents of children ages 0-7

Single mothers of children 0-14

Low and middle income renters and homeowners

Focus group results

What you feel is important in your lives? Health, having a job, taking care of financial well-being of family, taking care of selves in retirement.

How you feel about fire safety? Not a priority in one’s lives. They are aware of recent fires and fire deaths through media, mostly television.

Focus Groups

What do you think of fire dept initiatives on fire safety? Liked reaching kids through schools, reaching older adults, and home surveys and smoke alarms.

What about media campaigns? All groups said TV and radio most important.

Five Step Planning Process for Urban Fire Departments

1. Conduct a community analysis

2. Develop partnerships in the community

3. Create a strategy to solve the problem

4. Implement the strategy in the community

5. Evaluate the results

Five Step Planning features planning and implementation examples from large cities.

NFPA urban projects – what we provide

• Focus groups to help determine best ways to reach audiences in your city.

• Train the Trainer on NFPA’s Remembering When™: A Fire and Fall Prevention Program for Older Adults

•Implementations of two of the Urban Fire Safety Project recommendations