Full coverage of Fire Prevention Week

Photo courtesy of Bill Delaney Bill Delaney checks out the work progress last month at Rescue Station #39.

It is my belief that a key component to an outstanding community life safety education and outreach program is the empowerment of our people in the fire stations to do the right thing at the right time.

Too many opportunities are lost because the women and men in our stations often feel they can not act on a vision or spur of the moment opportunity without first seeking the approval of a higher authority. As we are all aware, this approval process can take days, weeks, and even months depending on the size of your organization.

The bottom line is that this results in an opportunity lost.

Recently I came across a unique and innovative group of firefighters at Fairfax County, Va., Fire & Rescue Station #39 "B" Shift. As part of open house week activities the shift, led by Captain JT Harrison, has come up with a fantastic interactive learning activity that's the envy of most fire and injury prevention educators across the country. In effect, they are building a stationary version of a fancy home safety trailer within their engine bays.

Utilizing their own initiative and resourcefulness, they are constructing this small home to provide important safety tips, placing hazards inside for people to find and creating a practical exercise to show how to escape a smoke-filled house.

They will be utilizing a smoke machine from their fire academy to produce a more realistic environment and to demonstrate how smoke banks down, highlighting the importance of staying low.

All of this was done thanks to a prevailing cultural attitude within the department that allows station personnel to be proactive and creative for Fire Prevention Week. No layers of red tape to slow things down or to discourage innovation; just an attitude of making it happen.

As a matter of fact, there is even a competition within each battalion and department wide to see which station has the best open house event. Hats off to Dan Schmidt, who oversees the department's Public Information and Life Safety Education (LSE) section, as well as Renee Stillwell, the LSE supervisor for nurturing this environment.

I stumbled across this thanks to our Washington-Metro Council of Governments Life Safety Education sub-committee. We decided to conduct a region-wide press event with the area fire chief for Fire Prevention Week, highlighting this fantastic and innovative learning tool.

My hope is that more departments across the country allow our people in the streets to "make it happen." There is a ton of talent out there — some in our own departments that we are unaware of! Allowing field personnel to make it happen will produce gems such as Station #39 "B" Shift and will also encourage those folks to employ their hidden talents for the greater good of fire and injury prevention!