June 17, 2008
Welcome to the Fire Corps E-Update. Fire Corps is a
locally-driven Citizen Corps program that allows
community members to offer their time and talents to
their local fire and EMS departments in non-operational
roles. Fire Corps serves as a gateway to information for
and about fire and EMS department programs and meets a
citizen's desire to serve as well as a department's need
for support.
In this issue:
-
June is Home Safety Month
-
Fire/EMS Safety, Health, and Survival Week: June
22-28
-
Theme Announced for Fire Prevention Week 2008:
“Prevent Home Fires!”
-
Fire Corps Funding Opportunity: Fireman’s Fund
Heritage Program
-
Department Profile: Glendale (AZ) Fire Department
Crisis Response Program
-
Calendar of Events
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June is Home Safety Month
According to the Home Safety Council (HSC), fire
and/or burns are the third leading cause of
unintentional home injury in the U.S. June is Home
Safety Month, providing a perfect opportunity for Fire
Corps teams to take a hands-on approach, reach out to
the public, and work to reduce this unfortunate
statistic.
This
year’s Home Safety Month campaign theme – Hands on Home
Safety – asks the public to take some simple hands-on
steps to create a safer home environment from the five
leading causes of home injury: falls, poisonings, fires
and burns, choking/suffocation, and drowning. Fire Corps
members can help their community do this through a
variety of activities, such as installing and testing
smoke alarms or utilizing the All-Ways Fire Safe at Home
module to teach fire prevention to residents in
different stages of life, from preschool to older adult.
The fire safety module is available free of charge to
all registered Fire Corps programs and can be ordered by
emailing a completed All-Ways Fire Safe at Home
request form to Fire Corps at
info@firecorps.org or faxing it 202-906-9284.
Additional resources are available on the HSC web site
at
www.homesafetycouncil.org.
The HSC is a national nonprofit organization
dedicated to preventing home-related injuries that
result in nearly 20,000 deaths and 21 million medical
visits on average each year. Through national programs,
partnerships, and the support of volunteers, HSC
educates people of all ages about home safety.
Learn more about the HSC and Home Safety Month.
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Fire/EMS Safety, Health, and Survival Week: June
22-28
The
International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), the
International Association of Firefighters (IAFF), and
the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC), all members
of the Fire Corps National Advisory Committee, have
partnered to support the 2008 Fire/EMS Safety, Health,
and Survival Week, scheduled for June 22-28. The theme
for the week is “Committed to Long-Term Results,” which
encourages long-term investments by both chiefs and
firefighters to enhance their health and safety. The
ultimate goal is to institute a strong culture of health
and safety within the fire and emergency medical
services.
Fire Corps members can promote health, safety, and
survival in their department by utilizing the
suggested activities and materials, which emphasize
three key areas where standard operating procedures,
policies, and initiatives – along with the training and
enforcement that support them – can limit fire/EMS
personnel’s risk of injury or death. These areas include
vehicle safety, wellness-fitness programs, and personal
protective equipment.
Fire Corps members, whether they are retired
firefighters, public educators, fitness instructors, or
family and friends of emergency personnel, can make a
difference to improve the safety, health, and the
overall survival of our nation’s first responders.
Learn more about Fire/EMS Safety, Health, and
Survival Week and access planning resources.
Learn more about health in the fire and emergency
services through the NVFC’s Heart-Healthy Firefighter
Program. Also stay tuned to the Heart-Healthy
Firefighter web site and E-news for more
information regarding the second annual
National Firefighter Health Week, to be held from
August 18-22.
Learn more about the NVFC/USFA Emergency Vehicle
Safe Operations Initiative.
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Theme Announced for Fire Prevention Week 2008:
"Prevent Home Fires!"
The National Fire Protection Association announced
that the theme for Fire Prevention Week 2008 (October
5-11) will be, “It’s Fire Prevention Week – Prevent Home
Fires!” Start planning your Fire Prevention Week
activities now.
Learn more about Fire Prevention Week and access
resources. Fire Corps and the National Volunteer Fire
Council will once again team up to release tips and
resources to help you distribute important fire
prevention messages. Stay tuned to the Fire Corps
E-update and
web site in the coming months for more information.
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Fire Corps Funding Opportunity: Fireman’s Fund
Heritage Program
Is your Fire Corps program looking for additional
funding opportunities? The
Fireman's Fund Heritage program is a national
community-based program that provides funds for
equipment, fire prevention tools, firefighter training,
fire safety education, and community emergency response
programs. Fireman's Fund employees and agents award
grants and provide volunteer support for local fire
departments, national firefighter organizations, and
burn prevention/treatment organizations.
Fire Corps members can tap into this resource to help
their program and department expand its activities, such
as by creating pamphlets with fire prevention tips to
distribute in the community or ordering smoke alarms to
install in residential homes. If your Fire Corps
volunteers help with the department’s fundraising
activities, consider utilizing the Heritage Program to
secure funding for needed gear and equipment for the
department’s first responders.
There is no application form or deadline. Instead,
departments are encouraged to complete a
survey on the Fireman’s Fund web site. This
information is shared with employees, independent
agents, field marketing organizations, and
brokers/dealers interested in nominating a fire
department for a grant.
Visit the
Fireman’s Fund Heritage web site to get answers to
frequently asked questions, take the
survey, or to learn more about the grant program.
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Department Profile: Glendale (AZ) Fire Department
Crisis Response Program
The Glendale (AZ) Fire Department strives to provide
rapid response to community needs, caring service for
everyone, innovative efforts to save life and property,
and professional performance at all times. To compliment
this mission, the department established the Crisis
Response Program (CR) and registered with Fire Corps in
March of 2008.
CR volunteers provide assistance, guidance, referral,
and grief support to citizens at emergency scenes and
during crises or tragedies. Once the team arrives,
firefighters and police are able to go back in service
and respond to the needs of other citizens, knowing the
highly qualified CR team is taking care of affected
community members. Members come from a variety of
diverse backgrounds and include a housewife and a Dean
of Students at a local University. Interns pursuing
their bachelor and master degrees from several local
universities also volunteer with the unit, along with
Emergency Medical Technicians from the local community
college.
CR delivers an innovative service that involves
immediate crisis intervention to family, victims, and
witnesses of a tragic event such as fire, drowning,
unexpected death, or crime. The program has been an
effective tool for the past five years and the trained
volunteers have contributed over 80,047 hours in 2007
alone. The value the CR volunteers have provided to the
Glendale Fire Department and the community is estimated
at more than $1.5 million, based on the
Independent Sector’s estimate that the hourly value
of volunteer time is $19.51.
Volunteers are recruited through various mediums,
such as the city’s web site and informational brochures.
If selected, they receive 90 hours of training from a
Regionalized Crisis Intervention Training Team. This
training includes: Victimology, Crisis Intervention,
Communication Skills, Sudden & Violent Death, Stages of
Grief, Death Notification, Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder, On Scene Safety, Incident Command, NIM’s,
Sexual Assault, Infection Control, Mental Health,
Suicide, Vulnerable Adults (Abuse & Neglect), Victim &
Legal Issues, Child Maltreatment, Children & Trauma,
Substance Abuse, Domestic Violence, Stress Management,
Diversity, and more.
The program was initiated to increase response
reliability for fire and police units. By dispatching
the CR volunteers to an incident, the team is able to
relieve the emergency response units to go back into
service and mitigate the incident when it is appropriate
to do so. Previously, once the firefighters extinguished
the fire or other emergency, they often had to respond
to another call, leaving the family with little
information on how to cope with the loss. Now CR
volunteers are dispatched to this same response scene
and assist the family in crisis intervention, helping
with contacting insurance companies, locating shelter,
and identifying all immediate needs such as food, water,
clothing, and medication.
The CR program recently received funding through the
city and will be included in the 2009 budget. In
addition, the team has several partnerships within the
business community and educational sector, and secures
private and corporate donations to support its operating
needs.
Lynette Jelinek, Human Services Division Manager of
the Glendale Fire Department, stated, “In a career fire
department, having paid personnel and volunteers work
collaboratively may be challenging. However, the
Glendale Fire Department personnel support the
volunteers of the CR program and understand that the
volunteers are the foundation of the Crisis Response
service delivery. Without volunteers, the Crisis
Response Unit would not exist. The program is a benefit
to the community, the Glendale Fire Department, and
nearby cities. The program can provide the necessary
guidance to make a difference in someone’s life during a
very difficult time.”
Learn more about the CR program.
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Calendar of Events
Below is a list of events that Fire Corps
staff will be attending, as well as nationally
recognized dates which Fire Corps would like to
acknowledge.
Fire/EMS Safety, Health, and Survival Week
June 22-28, 2008
Prevention, Advocacy, Resources and Data Exchange
(PARADE) Co-Chairs Meeting
June 23, 2008
Emmitsburg, MD
Firehouse Expo
July 22-27, 2008
Baltimore, MD
Fire Rescue International (FRI)
August 14-16, 2008
Denver, CO
National Firefighter Health Week
August 18-22, 2008
National Preparedness Month
September 2008
Fire Prevention Week
October 5-11, 2008
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May 20, 2008
Welcome to the Fire Corps E-Update. Fire Corps is a
locally-driven Citizen Corps program that allows
community members to offer their time and talents to
their local fire and EMS departments in non-operational
roles. Fire Corps serves as a gateway to information for
and about fire and EMS department programs and meets a
citizen's desire to serve as well as a department's need
for support.
In this issue:
-
Focus on EMS During National EMS Week, May 18-24
-
Fire Corps Coordinator Releases New Children's Fire
Safety Book
-
Nominate a Deserving Firefighter for a New Home
-
2008 Firewise Leadership Awards: Call for
Nominations
-
Department Profile: Mesquite Fire Corps (TX)
-
Calendar of Events
^ Back to Top
Focus on EMS During National EMS Week, May 18-24
This
week is National EMS Week, a time to celebrate and honor
those serving in the emergency medical field. Brought to
you by the American College of Emergency Physicians
(ACEP), this event brings together local communities and
emergency medical personnel to publicize safety and
honor the dedication of those who provide the day-to-day
lifesaving services on the medical front line.
Hundreds of grassroots activities coast-to-coast have
been planned around this year’s theme, "EMS: Your Life
is Our Mission." This statement was chosen to recognize
the commitment that emergency medical personnel make to
the communities they serve. This dedication to their
mission provides round-the-clock care to communities
across the nation.
There are many ways Fire Corps volunteers can help
their community’s first responders, both firefighters
and emergency medical personnel. For example, the
Ingleside (TX) Fire Corps program is working to promote
the
Vial-of-Life project, a program which
encourages individuals to post their medical information
on their refrigerators in order to assist emergency
personnel in administering proper medical treatment.
Fire Corps programs can participate in National EMS
Week by recognizing outstanding emergency medical
responders on their department web site or hosting an
open-house to educate the public about your EMS
services. The ACEP has created
EMS Week Fact Sheets you can distribute during your
EMS Week activities. You can customize the sheets with
your department’s logo and contact information.
Refer to the ACEP’s
2008 EMS Week Planning Guide and
Ideas for a Successful EMS Week to find tips and
activity ideas. Topics include hosting an open house;
working with the media; joining one of the many national
events held around the country; reaching out to special
populations such as the elderly, children, and those
with limited English proficiency; and more.
EMS Week is supported by a network of partner
organizations including the National Volunteer Fire
Council and the International Association of Fire
Chiefs. Learn
more about National EMS Week.
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Fire Corps Coordinator Releases New Children's Fire
Safety Book
Firefighter
and Public Educator Dayna Hilton of Clarksville, AR, has
added two new hats: that of publisher and author.
Hilton, Fire Corps Coordinator for the Johnson County
Rural Fire District #1 fire safety team, released her
new children’s book, Sparkles the Fire Safety Dog,
on April 11 at the Fire Department Instructor’s
Conference in Indianapolis, IN. The book is named after
Hilton’s Dalmatian, whom Hilton has trained to help
teach fire safety messages to children.
As children follow the adventures of Sparkles, they
learn valuable fire safety tips that will help keep them
and their families safe. The book is based on the latest
research presented in Oklahoma State University Fire
Protection Publications’ comprehensive Fire Safety
for Young Children, an Early Childhood Education
Curriculum for children between the ages of four
and five years old. Sparkles the Fire Safety Dog
addresses four of the eight key fire safety concepts
from the curriculum, including: recognizing the
firefighter as a helper and a friend, knowing the sound
and purpose of a smoke alarm, learning how to crawl low
under smoke, and understanding the importance of
practicing a home fire drill using an escape map.
One of Hilton’s goals as an educator is to assist
fire departments across the country with their fire and
life safety educational programming. One of the ways in
which her publishing company hopes to assist is to
provide fire departments with the opportunity to
purchase copies of the book at a promotional price. The
department can then sell the book at full price and use
the proceeds for their department’s fire and life safety
educational efforts. Departments may want to solicit
funds from local businesses and other sponsors to
purchase the book at the promotional rate.
Hilton’s next book, Sparkles Goes to Boston,
will be released next year and will include additional
fire safety messaging. Hilton and Sparkles will travel
to Boston in June to take photos for the book with
members of the Southborough Fire Department. They will
also conduct fire safety programs for area children.
For more information about Sparkles the Fire
Safety Dog, please visit Hilton’s web site at
www.firehousedogpublishing.com or contact
Hilton at
dayna@firehousedogpublishing.com.
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Nominate a Deserving Firefighter for a New Home
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is looking
for a firefighter whose house and family need help. The
show is accepting nominations for a firefighter who has
displayed heroism or has proven to be a positive role
model within the community, but whose family is in dire
need of a new home. Firefighters put their lives on the
line everyday to ensure the safety and security of their
communities. If there is a firefighter within your
department that can benefit from a home makeover, Fire
Corps members can take this opportunity to nominate them
today.
Learn more and view nomination guidelines.
2008 Firewise Leadership Awards: Call for
Nominations
Awards promote local, regional, state efforts to
reduce wildfire risk
The national Firewise Communities Program is calling
for nominations for its third annual awards program to
recognize outstanding efforts to promote a cooperative
approach to reducing the loss of lives, property, and
resources in the wildland/urban interface. The Firewise
Leadership Awards are open to individuals and
organizations conducting wildland fire mitigation
activities in residential developments in the wildland/urban
interface.
Eligible Firewise efforts may include, but are not
limited to:
- Innovations in engineering
- Program communications, advertising, exhibits,
and/or other informational programs
- Success in involving communities
- Collaboration across agency jurisdictions
- Special partnerships
Beyond recognition, the Firewise Leadership Awards
program helps program administrators capture success
stories and share best practices across the country,
between all types of interests – public, private, and
tribal. The Firewise Leadership Awards are open to a
maximum of the following every year:
- Two Regional Level Awards – Impact in more than
one state
- Three State Level Awards – State level impact,
with relevance in a majority of the state, measured
by land or population
- Three Local Level Awards – City/municipal,
county, or regional impact within a single state
The 2008 Firewise Leadership Awards winners will be
announced in November at the bi-annual National Wildland/Urban
Interface Fire Education Conference, "Backyards and
Beyond," in Tampa, Florida. All entries must be
submitted by June 30, 2008. Visit
www.firewise.org/awards for entry guidelines and
forms. E-mail questions to
firewiseawards@nfpa.org.
The national Firewise Communities program is an
interagency program designed to encourage local
solutions for wildfire safety by involving homeowners,
community leaders, planners, developers, firefighters,
and others in the effort to protect people and property
from the risk of wildfire. For more information, visit
www.firewise.org.
Department Profile: Mesquite Fire Corps, Texas
The Mesquite (TX) Fire Corps’ mission is to augment &
compliment the Mesquite Fire Department. Mesquite’s 14
Fire Corps members support the department’s activities
and receive training appropriate to their duties. Their
responsibilities include:
- Emergency Personnel Rehab: assist emergency
personnel during major events by establishing a
REHAB sector to provide rest, hydration,
nourishment, and medical evaluation.
- Disaster Response Assistance: serve as trained
volunteers during a disaster/mass casualty event to
assist incident command, volunteer services,
logistics, etc.
- Property Securement Team: assist residents in
securing property during residential structure fires
or disasters
- Special Events/Public Education: assist with
public education displays and at special events
where fire department has an educational/promotional
role
Fire Corps members recently provided critical support
to the City of Mesquite in search and recovery efforts
during a flash flood that claimed one life. Mesquite
officials praised the regional cooperation during the
rescue efforts, noting that, “it is unfortunate it takes
such events to highlight the importance of regional
response teams, but it is during such times that we also
find the value of that service. No one city can provide
for all of the resources needed to meet all hazards,
which is why we are stronger and more effective working
together than we are as individual communities.”
Mesquite Fire Corps and surrounding Citizen Corps
programs in North Central Texas, including the City of
Rowlett Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), made
such a positive impression on the Mayor and City Council
members during the flood that the Mesquite City Council
passed Resolution No. 17-2008 on April 7. The resolution
endorsed regional emergency planning and response,
officially recognized agencies that willingly offered a
helping hand, and encouraged other entities to continue
to support regional planning and preparedness
initiatives in North Central Texas.
Learn more about the Mesquite Fire Corps program.
 |
|
City of Mesquite
Fire Corps Program provides support to first
responders searching for a young drowning
victim.
|
Calendar of Events
Below is a list of events that Fire Corps
staff will be attending, as well as nationally
recognized dates which Fire Corps would like to
acknowledge.
National EMS Week
May 18-24
Prevention, Advocacy, Resources and Data Exchange
(PARADE) Co-Chairs Meeting
June 23, 2008
Emmitsburg, MD
Firehouse Expo
July 22-27, 2008
Baltimore, MD
Fire Rescue International (FRI)
August 14-16, 2008
Denver, CO