Wildfire Community Preparedness Day (Prep Day) is just around the corner! What projects are you planning to help prepare your home and neighborhood for wildfire? For the ninth consecutive year, NFPA® and campaign cosponsor State Farm® encourage everyone to join together on the first Saturday in May for events and activities that can help make homes and communities safer from wildfire. On Saturday, May 6, 2023, people from across the United States and Canada will take part in projects that increase their safety from wildfire. Take the opportunity to defend your home ignition zone by taking simple, low-cost steps along with your neighbors.   NFPA and State Farm make it easier with a Prep Day toolkit. The toolkit is a wealth of project ideas, safety tips, promotional material, and more. While project awards are not part of the 2023 campaign, Prep Day activities bring tremendous value to your community. For instance, Prep Day work can help Firewise USA® sites meet their annual investment criteria for volunteer hours. Engaging in Prep Day can be an important first step for people who want to be safer from wildfire but aren’t sure how to begin. Use the Wildfire Community Preparedness Day Toolkit, videos, social media cards, and other wildfire safety resources at wildfireprepday.org. Share them with others in your community to not only make a difference in safety on Prep Day, but to make a difference all through the year as well.

The NFPA® Spotlight on Public Education (SOPE) conference is an exciting and cost-effective way to connect with fire and life safety content and professionals from a wide range of specialties. Now in its seventh year, SOPE takes place Monday and Tuesday, June 19 and 20, at the 2023 NFPA Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada. This engaging “conference within a conference” provides professional development and networking for fire and life safety, burn prevention, injury prevention, and public health educators. Registration for SOPE includes eight unique fire and life safety related workshops, access to the Expo floor and General Session, and a dedicated lounge for people to network and grab a snack.  SOPE participants also have free admission to the “Community Risk Reduction: Making Neighborhoods Safer” workshop on Wednesday, June 21, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. This year’s workshops cover a variety of topics for learning and skill development: ·      Promoting public education programs: From the firehouse kitchen table to the community ·      Adverse childhood experiences and CRR: Mitigation with evidence-based approaches ·      Fire prevention education programs: Engaging the community ·      Data-driven prevention programs for older adults ·      Demonstrating results: Evaluating your fire and life safety efforts ·      Fire Prevention Week™: Repurposing history to create informed communities ·      Enhancing fire safety education with virtual reality ·      Utilizing community partnerships to save lives   Register for the 2023 Spotlight on Public Education. At $125, it’s a great value for dedicated fire and life safety professional development and networking in sunny Las Vegas! Follow me on Twitter @AndreaVastis, Sparky the Fire Dog® on Twitter and Facebook and NFPA on Instagram to keep up with the latest in Fire and Life Safety education.

At a CRR Kitchen Table event hosted by NFPA® earlier this month, the Gates Fire Department (New York) shared how conducting a community risk assessment (CRA) using CRAIG 1300®, the digital tool that helps capture and analyze community data, helped them identify the leading safety risks within their community and create a plan for addressing them. Alan Bubel, fire chief of the Gates Fire Department (GFD), said that in previous years he spent more time looking at trends across the country, but many of those trends didn’t truly speak to the needs and circumstances of his community. By changing their focus and looking at the real risks and threats, Bubel and his colleagues have been better able to respond to those issues and needs, particularly as demographics have changed over the past 20 years and more residents are at higher risk to fire. “If we don’t know what our community’s needs are, we aren’t going to be able to meet them,” said Bubel. Kalli Herouvis, CRR specialist for GFD, and Laurie Schwenzer, assistant CRR specialist for GFD, also shared their approach to implementing an effective CRR strategy, noting that they look at CRR from both an educational and operational standpoint. As the needs and risks are changing—and the pace of that change is getting faster—the data provided by CRAIG 1300 helps identify those needs and effectively address them. Herouvis reinforced that understanding the people plays a key role in their efforts. “Demographics, the occupancies within the community, economics—they’re are all factors in identifying the risks within the community,” she said. The Gates Fire Department also said that CRAIG 1300 has been an effective tool for substantiating the need for more staffing and services, as the tool effectively tracks the increased number of calls they receive and the reasons for those calls. Consequently, the Gates Fire Department has been able to increase its staffing and, in turn, have been more effective in providing services to the community. The upcoming KT event on Wednesday, March 29, will feature Jason Orellanas from the Cape Coral Fire Department (Florida), who will talk about how the data from his Community Risk Assessment helps not only to guide prevention efforts, but also how it was a valuable resource in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. Email CRR@nfpa.org to register!

Each year, the NFPA Fire and Life Safety Educator of the Year Award is presented to a fire service educator who takes the lead role in making their communities safer. Since 2000, the Public Education Division of NFPA has presented this prestigious award, highlighting the great work being done in the field of fire and life safety (FLS) education.     RELATED: Read about the 2022 winner here.   This award is given yearly to a North American FLS educator who meets the following criteria:    Works for a local/municipal fire department or fire marshal’s office. Uses NFPA educational programs and materials in a consistent and creative way for their community/audience. Demonstrates excellence and innovation in reaching out to the community with NFPA materials.   The Educator of the Year receives: $1,000 honorarium which recipients can accept or forward to the charity of their choice. Sparky the Fire Dog® statue Paid registration to attend the NFPA Conference & Expo® from June 19–23 in Las Vegas. Additional $1,000 donation to the recipient’s local fire department or the fire marshal’s office to support public education activities.   The nomination period is open through March 28, 2023. To submit your nomination, visit the  NFPA Fire and Life Safety Educator of the Year Award page to download the form and submit the nomination and support materials. Questions can be sent to education@nfpa.org. Follow me on Twitter @AndreaVastis, Sparky the Fire Dog® on Twitter and Facebook, and NFPA on Instagram to keep up with the latest in fire and life safety education.

If you’re planning to celebrate Valentine’s Day by cooking a special meal or using candles to create a warm, cozy environment, remember to keep fire safety in mind. Home fires involving cooking equipment is the leading cause of home fires, with unattended cooking serving as the leading cause. Keep a close eye on what’s on the stove and in the oven and turn off cooking appliances promptly when you’re finished using them. Also, keep anything that can burn, such as oven mitts, dish towels, and food packaging, at least three feet from the cooking area. An average of 20 home candle fires are reported to US fire departments each day. Three of every five (60%) of home candle fires occurred when some form of combustible material was left or came too close to the candle, with roughly one-third (37%) of home candle fires starting in bedrooms. Consider using battery-operated candles, which eliminate the risk of candle fires. If you do plan to use real candles, these tips can help minimize the risk of fire: Keep candles at least 12 inches from anything that can burn. Use candle holders that are sturdy and won’t tip over easily. Put candle holders on a sturdy, uncluttered surface. Blow out all candles before you leave a room or go to bed. Never leave children or pets alone in a room with a burning candle. Light candles carefully. Keep your hair and any loose clothing away from the flame. Don’t burn a candle all the way down — put it out before it gets too close to the holder or container. Avoid the use of candles in the bedroom and other areas where people may fall asleep. Check out our cooking and candle safety pages for more information and to keep this February 14 a romantic, fire-free holiday.

A major lesson of the 2022 Fire Prevention Week™ theme “Fire won’t wait. Plan your escape.”™ is that today’s home fires burn hotter and faster than ever, leaving occupants with as little as two minutes or less to safely escape from the time the smoke alarm sounds. Planning and practicing Home Fire Escape with all members of the household and having working smoke alarms are two critical elements increasing residents’ chances of surviving a home fire.  For community members living in apartment and high-rise buildings, additional considerations may be needed for home fire safety planning. This can include communicating with the landlord/manager about the building’s safety features, practicing fire drills with neighbors, and knowing when to shelter in place rather than escape. The new Fire Safety in the City kit was developed to provide a simple, picture-filled way to teach about the unique considerations for home fire escape planning in multifamily housing. This kit includes information on escape, smoke alarms, and keeping children away from items that can burn or start fires, such as lighters and matches.  Help your community members navigate their apartment/high-rise living spaces by educating them on the importance of escape planning using these resources along with our High-Rise Apartment & Condominium Safety Tip Sheet and our new Older Adult Home Fire Escape video.  Follow me on Twitter @AndreaVastis, Sparky the Fire Dog® on Twitter and Facebook, and NFPA on Instagram to keep up with the latest in fire and life safety education.