NFPA Conference & Expo

Knocking it out of the ballpark: Education session highlights a campaign successfully utilizing the Toronto Blue Jays and NFPA safety messages

Canadian fire safety advocates discussed how they got the Toronto Blue Jays on board to promote NFPA’s educational messages  throughout the country during today's well attended education session, “Swing into Summer Safety,”

Presenter Arthur Pullan, executive director of the the Fire Marshal's Public Fire Safety Council, discussed how his organization recently resurrected a partnership with the Major League Baseball team and 200 Canadian fire departments to spread the word on fire and life safety through the Swing into Summer Safety Campaign. Specialized baseballs cards featuring NFPA safety tips complemented public service announcements (PSAs) featuring Blue Jays players promoting these tips. Some of the PSAs were shown during the education session.

Another success of the campaign was a Fire Safety Day at Rogers Centre, home of the Bue Jays, that included an appearance by NFPA's Sparky the Fire Dog. "We wanted to make sure we used NFPA's consistent messaging [for this campaign] and Sparky, since he's iconic," says Pullan. Due to the campaign's success, the Blue Jays extended their commitment with this campaign to three years.

Visit the Swing Into Summer Safety Campaign site for more information.

-Fred Durso, Jr.

Latest research underscores a new breed of health hazards for firefighters

"These aren't your grandfather's fires anymore," warns C. Stuart Baxter of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, who underscored the increasing dangers of fires involving synthetic building materials at today's education session "Firefighter Health Hazards in the New Fire Environment."

Baxter's latest research analyzed remnants on firefighter gloves and hoods, particularly "plasticizers" from burned, synthetic material that can be absorbed by the body and are known carcinogens in other animals. The substance is also known as an "endocrine disruptor," which can cause testicular, prostate, and lung cancer.

While Baxter tries to narrow the link between synthetic materials and these diseases in on-duty and retired firefighters, he urges everyone to take precautions. Some simple steps include use of SCBA gear through the entire duration of fire suppression, bathing after fighting a fire, and washing all gear. For more information on code improvements benefiting firefighter health and safety, read the feature in the latest edition of NFPA Journal.

-Fred Durso, Jr.

NFPA task force tackles fire safety in large cities

A large urban city is defined by a population of more than 250,000. While living in a city may not increase the risk of fire, demographic changes including the growing numbers of older adults, people with disabilities, immigrants and people living in poverty may impact fire safety in the city. Large urban city fire departments have particular challenges with limited resources, working in high-crime areas, leveraging relationships with city-wide institutions, reaching multicultural communities and getting residents to focus on fire safety.

NFPA's Urban Fire Safety Task Force, meeting today in Las Vegas, is composed of public fire safety educators and community risk reduction officers from 26 North American cities.

The purpose of the Task Force is to examine the unique challenges facing fire and life safety educators in large cities. The task force develops strategies to address those challenges and shares them with large city fire departments. Some of the topics discussed at today's meeting were experiences using the Public Education Planning for Urban Communities five-step planning process, successful smoke alarm installation programs, and the identification of public education and outreach issues.

Learn more about NFPA's Urban Fire Safety Task Force. 

The following cities are represented on the Task Force: Baltimore, MD; Cleveland, OH; Columbus, OH; Washington, DC; Minneapolis, MN: Philadelphia, PA; Charlotte, NC; Raleigh, NC; Miami, FL; Austin TX; Dallas, TX; Tulsa, OK; Oklahoma City, OK; Chicago, IL; Los Angeles, CA; Cincinnati, OH; Hamilton, Ontario; Edmonton, Alberta; St. Louis, MO; Kansas City; Memphis, TN; El Paso, TX; Louisville, KY; Detroit, MI; Milwaukee, WI; and Atlanta, GA.

Barbara Rice of Arizona tells us what the NFPA Conference & Expo means to her

Barbara Rice of the Cape Verde, Arizona, Fire Department recently won a contest we posted on our Conference blog. We asked readers to tell us, in 75 words or less, why they attend the NFPA Conference & Expo. The prize? Free registration to this year's event in Boston!

Here was Barbara's winning entry:

"I attend the NFPA Conference to network with peers who share ideas about how best to educate and protect our diverse communities. The education programs and life safety topics discussed are so varied and these programs provide the most current information on latest strategies, technology and publications relevant to every aspect of fire and life safety. Where else can you get all of that for the price? It is the most comprehensive conference I attend."

We ran into Barbara at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center - here's what she had to say:

Video: NFPA's Allan Fraser talks about evacuation planning for people with disabilities

In a session called "Get Real Using NFPA's Emergency Evacuation Guide for People with Disabilities", Allan Fraser, NFPA's expert on accessibility issues, spoke about the importance of all occupants of a building being prepared for an emergency. He stated that during an evacuation, up to 50% of any given community may need help getting out of the building or be unable to understand what they are supposed to do. 

Download a free evacuation planning guide; learn more about NFPA's online safety resources for people with disabilities. 

Results of Johns Hopkins study on effective fire and life safety messaging for children

Dina Borzekowski presents findings of the Johns Hopkins study on educational messaging for young children. 

When NFPA received a fire prevention grant from the Department of Homeland Security to examine the impact of positively framed fire and life safety messages on children ages 4 through 9, we looked at the difference between positively and negatively framed messages on children’s attention, comprehension, and behavioral intention. A total of 640 children and their parents participated in the project. The study was conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. 

This morning, the study was presented and attendees were provided with guidance on creating educational materials in accordance with the results. Results are available in a guide for the fire service that was created to help fire prevention educators make good decisions when selecting educational materials. 

Read an NFPA Journal feature on the educational study.

- Karen Wallingford

NFPA Conference session focuses on using social media to expand your safety message outreach

Ed Ballam of Firehouse.com News is covering this year's NFPA Conference & Expo here in Boston. Following is an excerpt of one of Ed's articles. 

Social media is one of the fastest growing modes of communication ever developed, and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) is hopping on the bandwagon in using social media to promote its message. They recommend other fire departments and prevention agencies do the same.

On Monday at NFPA's annual conference and expo, held in Boston this year, three of the association's staff members shared tips about the different types of social media and how fire departments and similar organizations can get their message out to those whom they serve.

Lorraine Carli, NFPA's vice president of communications, outlined the pervasiveness of social media in today's society. In her section of the presentation called, "Using Social Media to Expand your Safety Message Outreach," she said people are spending up to 23 percent of their time on social media networks, and said use of Facebook among those 55 and older grew by 900 percent in 2010.

Blogs, micro blogs, podcasts, social media networks, videos and sites like YouTube are some of the places people are getting their information Ms. Carli said, noting that it was an easy decision to devote attention to the newest form of electronic media. To NFPA officials, it made sense to reach people where they are - on the internet - and use that as a vehicle to convey their fire safety and prevention messages.

Ms. Carli and two of her colleagues, Lauren Backstrom, who is NFPA's social media manager, and Mike Hazell, the association's web publisher, presented their Top Ten" techniques on using social media.

Using social media to expand your safety message outreach

Editor’s note: Following the NFPA staff presentation, a lively social media open forum was held so that attendees could exchange ideas. On-hand to share their social media expertise were Tod Aubin of Prepare4; Ed Comeau of Firewatch.com, Bill Delaney of Montgomery County (MD) Fire Rescue; and Michael Rupert of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.

Read Ed Ballam’s entire article on Firehouse.com.

Sharing strategies for public safety in urban areas focus of this morning's session

David Sawyer from the Columbus Division of Fire discusses recommendations for preventing fire deaths in communities

John Verbeek from Hamilton Emergency Services in Ontario presents data that was used in developing a public safety program there

Larry Gray from the Cleveland Fire Department cites challenges and recommendations for addressing education challenges 

Representatives from urban areas gathered this morning to present their own challenges, recommendations and solutions to the public education and outreach issue facing fire departments and fire safety professionals. Large city fire departments have particular outreach challenges that include conducting fire prevention programs with limited resources; staffing smoke alarm installation programs; and working in high-crime areas. Leveraging relationships with city-wide institutions serving preschoolers, school-age children, or older adults; reaching multi-cultural communities in their own languages; and getting community members to focus on fire safety when other issues may seem more compelling are all additional challenges. 

Though ranking causes of fire deaths vary from community to community, developing partneships with organizations, public education (particularly to young children, seniors and immigrants), and community involvement are all common denominators in the success rate of watching fire deaths decline. NFPA has established an Urban Safety Task Force that was established in 2008 and coordinated through NFPA’s Public Education Division. The task force has identified the need to reach urban populations and collaborates with fire service professionals at the community level to support their fire safety mission.

- Karen Wallingford

NFPA conference session looks at low-anxiety evaluation techniques for public safety programs

Gary Basset and Mary Marchone of the USFA & National Fire Academy present on effective tools for evaluating your public safety program

In the education session called, "Do You Have Evaluation Phobia? We Have the Cure", Gary Basset and Mary Marchone discussed practical and productive ways in which program coordinators can best evaluate their public safety programs to meet established goals. The presentation provided basic techniques and tools to evaluate public education programs and inspection services, while providing examples of evaluation measures, instruments, and methods to gauge change during planning and implementation. Short-and long-term effects were also discussed. 

The pair presented on the four stages of program evaluation from early formative planning, to outcome evaluation. The framework around program planning and evaluation follows a "S.M.A.R.T" objectives approach (an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, and Realistic) and when applied in concert with the four stages of development, help to foster the evaluation process as an efficient and productive tool for program planning. The four stages are:

Stage I - Formative evaluation planning

Stage II - Process evaluation and implementation

Stage III - Impact evaluation and immediate effects

Stage IV - Outcome evaluation and long term effects

By breaking the evaluation process into a series of stages, Mr. Basset and Ms. Marchone diffused anxiety surrounding the evaluation process; something that can be a source of stress for many program coordinators who need to guage the efficacy of their outreach efforts.

- Karen Wallingford

School kids celebrate Sparky’s 60th birthday

Students from Boston’s Alighieri Elementary School eagerly celebrated Sparky’s 60th birthday today at the 2011 NFPA Conference & Expo and these kids are obviously regulars on the birthday party circuit, each showing up with a handmade birthday card for the furry six-foot mascot. 

 
Judy Comoletti, NFPA’s division manager of Public Education, led a lesson in smoke alarm fire safety and quickly had the wide-eyed youngsters in blurting out “beep, beep, beep” when asked what sound a smoke alarm makes. 

Another highlight of the party featured children’s book author Don Hoffman, who has written the soon-to-be-released Sparky the Fire Dog book, conducting a lively book reading and emphasizing the fire safety lessons within it. 

Sparky led the march of 21 children to the lobby of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center where the children stood in awe of the three-foot high Sparky cake made by TLC’s “Cake Boss”. A crowd gathered as children joined NFPA President Jim Shannon for the much-anticipated cutting of the cake. From a kid’s point of view, what can be better than meeting a fire safety icon in person?  A fire safety icon made with cake and frosting! 

Have you ever met Sparky the Fire Dog? Tell us your story! 

- Eileen Scafidi