EFFINGHAM FIRE DEPARTMENT -

PUBLIC EDUCATION

America’s fire death rate is one of the highest per capita in the world. According to the United States Fire Administration, fire kills over 5,000 people and injures more than 25,000 people each year. In 2004 (the latest year for which statistics are available) direct property losses due to fire exceed $10 billion – 377,050 fires in residential properties and 143,950 fires in non-residential buildings. Most of these deaths and losses can be prevented.

* The New York City Fire Department, covering a population of about 8 million, responds to nearly as many fires per year as firefighters in the entire nation of Japan, which has a population of 128 million.

Over 70% of fire deaths occur in residences, most often claiming the lives of the young, the elderly, and the disadvantaged. There is a fire every ten seconds, and every 60 seconds a fire is serious enough to call the fire department. Every two hours someone is killed in a fire. More than 50% of fire deaths in the U.S. are due to ignition of upholstered furniture and mattresses. In 2003, someone died in a fire every 2 hours, and someone was injured every 29 minutes. Most victims of fires died from smoke or toxic gases and not from burns.

The Effingham Fire Department is honored on a national level for their efforts in fire prevention and public fire education for the past 25 years. The National Fire Safety Council has recognized the efforts and success of the departments’ prevention programs for school aged children and use of the Fire Safety House. The Fire Safety House is a mobile house and is designed to create conditions that children would be faced with in the event of a residential fire using theatrical smoke. In addition, Public Fire Safety Programs outside of the schools are coordinated by Richard “Dick” Kenter (Email) and include a variety of topics that promote fire and life safety throughout the home, businesses, and the community, to include Station tours and visits to neighborhood block parties.

We maintain an excellent working relationship with all of the area schools, which actually doubles our efforts having the children take home the information to their parents. Children represent only about 16 percent of the population we must reach, and we have many other people in the community to educate. Fire safety education is a lifelong process and by getting the schools involved, we reach a larger population than just the children. Our fire safety education materials are funded by donations from community businesses in cooperation with the National Fire Safety Council, which we have been part of for over 25 years – NO TAX DOLLARS are currently used for these materials. Our future involvement will continue to visit the elderly centers throughout the City, and expand programs to area businesses. In 2006, we achieved the following:

• Conducted the second annual Open House during Fire Prevention Week with an estimated 850 visitors in 4 hours.
• Conducted ten timed fire drills in area schools representing 3,932 students.
• Continued with a safety coloring contest in area schools with one winner from each school. The winner was picked up at home on a school day in a fire engine and brought to the station to have breakfast with the crew on duty. After breakfast, the child was taken to school in the fire engine with friends and faculty waiting on their arrival.
• Instituted a Safety Essay contest with the area schools with the winners name and school (one from each school) placed on the side of one of the three engines. The name remains on the apparatus for a one-year period.
• During the month of October, came in contact with 5,389 children and parents discussing fire safety education and information and Safety House.
• During the course of the year, came in contact with a total of 6,525 children and adults through public appearances, station tours, or safety demonstrations.
• Conducted “live” fire extinguisher training for City Hall staff.

FIRE PREVENTION WEEK

The coloring contest winners were announced at the Open House. The six (6) winners from grades Kindergarten through 4th grade are as follows: Hannah Pemberton, Central School; Jacob Bushue, Sacred Heart; Ryan Sandifer, South Side School; Jeremiah Crowell, Early Learning Center; Morgan Gardewine, St. Anthony Grade School and Alexis Stout, West Side School. Each winner will be picked up at their residence on a school day in a Fire Engine, taken to the station to have breakfast with the Firefighters and then taken to school in the Fire Engine.

Kenter and Savannah Devore		Josie Forbes		Patrick Sherrod

Jason Lee, Christi Brown, Shelby Moran, Patrick Tegeler, and JR Nieman		Frank Schniederjon

On October 9th, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire started. This tragic fire killed some 300 people, left 100,000 homeless and destroyed more than 17,000 structures. One popular legend claims that Mrs. Catherine O'Leary was milking her cow when the animal kicked over a lamp, set the O'Leary barn on fire and started the fiery conflagration. The City of Chicago was fast to rebuild and soon began to remember the event with festivities.

The Fire Marshals Association of North America (FMANA) believed the 40th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire should be observed in a way that would keep the public aware of the importance of fire prevention. On October 9, 1911, FMANA sponsored the first National Prevention Day.

In 1920, President Woodrow Wilson issued the first National Fire Prevention Day proclamation. By 1925, President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed the first National Fire Prevention Week, which was October 4th-10th, 1925. He noted that in the previous year approximately 15,000 lives had been lost to fire in the United States. President Coolidge's proclamation stated. "This waste results from conditions that justify a sense of shame and horror; for the greater part of it could and ought to be prevented.... It is highly desirable that every effort be made to reform the conditions that have made possible so vast a destruction of the national wealth."

National Fire Prevention Week is always the week in which October 9th falls. Each year a specific theme is chosen and is commemorated throughout the United States. This year’s theme:

"PLAN YOUR ESCAPE”