Transwiki:Wikiversity-School of Fire and Emergency Management/Teenager Fire Safety Project Initiative

Identification:

The Fire Prevention Bureau has completed an analysis of all structure fires that have occurred within the Any Town Fire Department’s jurisdiction over the past two years. This analysis has identified thirty three structure fires involving single-family dwellings during that time period. Of these thirty-three structure fires, seventeen (51%) were caused by food on the stove. Twelve of these seventeen fires involved teenagers who were at home without parental supervision. The Prevention Bureau proposes an aggressive home fire-safety education program aimed at teenagers with emphasis on the dangers of leaving cooking items unattended. With your approval we would like to implement the following program.

Selection:

Any Town Fire Prevention Bureau would like to propose a fire prevention program that will focus on safe cooking practices in the home. The prevention bureau would like to present an instructional video, titled “Cooking Safety in the Home” that will focus on the primary target audience. We believe a high percentage of teens can be reached by conducting the program at public & private schools. Our secondary target group is parents with adolescent children. We intend to reach this group by presenting similar material at parent teacher conferences. The cost would be minimal if we use the public and private school system facilities to promote this program.

Design:

The program will consist of an introduction and information hand out by the Any Town Fire Prevention Bureau, a lecture using Power Point presentation on cooking safety, followed by short video on the dangers of leaving cooking items unattended. The program length should not exceed 30 minutes and be presented two times per year at the start of each semester. The adult program will be presented once per school semester at the parent teacher conference. Included will be the importance of having a working smoke detector in every home, having at least one fire extinguisher in the kitchen, and steps to take in case of a fire. The presentation will end with a question and answer session.

Implementation:

We propose initially offering the program at Anytown High School at the start of the next school year. A member from the fire prevention bureau, assisted by an engine company will be on hand to deliver the program. Interaction between the audience and team members will be strongly encouraged. Any Town Printing Company has agreed to produce informational handouts that team members will distribute to the participants at no cost as a public service. The instructional video can be purchased at a cost of $39.99. Video equipment from the school can be utilized in the presentation. Company officers on hand should be instructed to evaluate and make recommendations on ways to improve delivery and content.

Evaluation:

Immediate feedback will be obtained by members of audience filling out an evaluation form at the end of the program. Long-term results will be obtained from the incident reporting system in the area at one year intervals from the start of the program. It is our estimate that we can reach at least 90% of adolescents and 70% of parents in our target groups. Projected goals involving incidents of this nature should approach a 50% decrease in unattended cooking fires involving our target groups.