KENTUCKY RESIDENTIAL FIRE
INJURY PREVENTION PROJECT
Local Project Coordinator’s Guide
Robert H. McCool, MS
Principal Investigator and Project Manager
November, 2002
Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center
Lexington, KY
34
Table of Contents
Chapter Title Page
1. Introduction and Overview 3
2. Setup and Training 11
3. Telephone Surveys 15
4. Smoke Alarm Installation 23
5. Media Activities 31
6. Community Education 37
7. Records and Reports 39
8. The Follow-Up Check 43
9. Summary 47
A Appendix A: Project Staff 49
B Appendix B: Media Materials 51
C Appendix C: Forms 71
D Appendix D: Frequently Asked Questions 83
E Appendix E: Other Useful Information 87
Introduction and Overview
The Residential Fire Injury Prevention Project (RFIP) is a program designed to reduce the number of deaths and injuries related to fires in Kentucky homes. The project should also reduce property damage by helping participants learn how to prevent fires, but property protection is not a specific goal of the project.
The RFIP is funded by the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), which is part of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The money for the project is provided to the Kentucky Department for Public Health. The department’s injury prevention programs are located in the Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center (KIPRC), a joint partnership program between the Department for Public Health and the University of Kentucky’s School of Public Health. When the federal money is received by the health department it is made available to KIPRC, where the RFIP staff insure that the program is carried out according to the terms of the agreement between the health department and the CDC.
Fire departments and other local program partner organizations are selected through a competitive mini-grant process. Those organizations that want to be a part of the RFIP submit applications, and a review team composed of fire service personnel, other public safety personnel and public health personnel determine which applications should be funded. Applications are rated on the need of the community, the apparent ability of the organization to do the necessary work, the willingness of the organization to commit in writing to doing the work, and the organization’s willingness to keep good records and follow up on alarms that have been installed.
Many local organizations receive money from state or federal sources. Some-times this is in the form of state or federal aid funds, to help pay for the operation of the organization, and sometimes it is in the form of grant funds. The biggest difference between these is that aid funds are usually non-competitive -- everyone who meets the minimum qualifications gets the money -- while grants are most often competitive. In either case, the funding programs that most local organizations are familiar with are not very complicated. The agency asks for money to do or buy a specific thing. If the request is approved, either a check is sent to the agency or the agency pays for something and then sends in a receipt. Whether the agency gets the money up front or is reimbursed later, there usually isn’t a lot of paperwork and follow-up involved. Once the item(s) funded by the grant or aid money have been purchased, and proof of that purchase provided to the funding agency, most of the record keeping is done.
The RFIP is a bit more complicated than that. There are specific things that have to be done in order to complete the project in a local community, and the local partner organization has to maintain certain records. The requirements for the RFIP are described in detail in the following pages. Directions and suggestions are also provided to help local agencies meet those requirements. By following these guidelines, and contacting the project coordinator or their assigned liaison when they have questions, any local organization should be able to complete the requirements for this project.
Project Goals
It is important for local organizations to be aware of the project goals. Without knowing what the overall goals are it is hard for a local project coordinator to determine what needs to be done in his or her community to properly complete the project. The project goals for each participating community are:
1. Build partnerships with other community agencies, gather materials and train local personnel.
2. Gather information about the percentage of homes in the community that have smoke alarms before the project.
3. Install the smoke alarms received by the local organization in homes in the community that do not have smoke alarms, or that have inadequate smoke alarm coverage.
4. Provide fire safety education to the residents of each home where smoke alarms are installed.
5. Work with local media and other local organizations to publicize and promote fire safety and smoke alarms in the community.
6. Do fire safety education programs that reach at least 500 people in the community.
7. Keep records of all fire safety programs, media advertisements and news stories, and other programs related to the project.
8. Gather information about the percentage of homes in the community that have smoke alarms after the project.
9. Do a follow-up check on some of the alarms that were installed, six months after they were installed, to see how many are still working properly.
10. Provide clear, detailed information about the project to KIPRC on a regular basis.
Each of these goals is discussed in detail below.
Build partnerships with other community agencies, gather materials and train local personnel.
It is important for local organizations participating in the RFIP to understand that they will need help from other groups in their community in order to be successful. This is not a project that can be done by the Lone Ranger; it is a team project. Locating and enrolling eligible members of the community so that they can receive smoke alarms may require the help of the local health department, senior citizens’ groups, schools and family resource centers, day care centers, service clubs, community action groups, social services agencies and other groups who serve children, the elderly and those with low incomes.
It is also important to locate groups who will provide good targets for fire safety education programs. Since goal 6 involves educating at least 500 people in the community about fire safety -- and does not include the in-home education provided for goal 4 -- it is important to find and work with groups who can help you reach vulnerable and high-risk groups within your community.
You will also need to gather materials during the setup period. You will be provided with a specified number of smoke alarms, along with a supply of brochures and educational materials for the residents of homes where alarms are installed. You will also be able to order up to one thousand dollars ($1,000) of additional fire safety education materials for doing community fire safety programs. You should select and order these materials early, to be sure that you receive them in time for your programs. The state project coordinator or your state liaison can provide you with more information about the supply process.
Finally, the individuals who will install the smoke alarms need to be trained. Most local organizations that participate as lead local partners will be fire departments, but even firefighters often don’t know the best way to install smoke alarms. Other organizations may also be doing installation, either as the lead local partner or in support of a project coordinated by another agency. Regardless of who the individuals are who will be installing the alarms, installer training needs to be conducted for them. You will need to contact the state project coordinator or your state liaison to schedule installer training for your personnel. Once you have developed trained and experienced installers they can usually do training for others if you add more installers later.
You can find additional information about the project setup process, as well as more information about the installer training course, in chapter 2, Setup and Training.
Gather information about the percentage of homes in the community that have smoke alarms before the project.
Many local organizations are concerned mainly with helping people, not with being able to show later whether or not what they did worked. Because this project is funded with federal tax money, it is important to be able to show how well the project works in each community. If KIPRC and the Department for Public Health do not provide this information to CDC each year, the funding for future years may be cancelled.
One way to show that the project works is to show that there was an increase in homes with smoke alarms in the community after the project has been done. In order to be able to do that, we have to know what percentage of homes in the community had smoke alarms before the project started. This is done by a random telephone survey of homes in the community. Detailed instructions for how to do the initial smoke alarm survey are found in chapter 3, Telephone Surveys.
Install the smoke alarms received by the local organization in homes in the community that do not have smoke alarms, or that have inadequate smoke alarm coverage.
The RFIP is not just a “smoke alarm project” -- the education component of the project is also very important -- but smoke alarm installation is one of the major priorities of the project. Studies have shown that simply giving out smoke alarms to people does not provide much protection. Many of those who receive alarms forget to install them, or take the batteries out for some other use and forget to replace them. They can also put the alarms in a location where they won’t work properly or where they will be set off by steam from cooking or bathing. To solve these problems, the RFIP doesn’t give out alarms to individuals. Instead, volunteer installers from the local community actually install the alarms in homes that need them. That way we can be sure that the alarms were installed properly and that they were operating normally when they were installed.
The actual process of installing smoke alarms is covered in the alarm installer training class. Methods for organizing your local alarm installation program and how to keep records of it are explained in chapter 4, Smoke Alarm Installation.
Provide fire safety education to the residents of each home where smoke alarms are installed.
It isn’t enough to install smoke alarms in homes that don’t have them. Many people do not know how to take care of the alarms once they are installed, or what to do if an alarm sounds. They usually don’t have a home fire escape plan, and if they do, they may never have practiced it. If people don’t know how to take care of their smoke alarms and what to do if the alarm sounds, they are not being protected from fires.
We also want to help protect lives and property by preventing fires from starting. A warning from a smoke alarm usually allows people time to escape from a burning house safely, but sometimes people can be trapped by flames or smoke, and the alarm does nothing to save the house itself. Teaching people how to avoid residential fires is important, because most household fires are started by unsafe behavior that could easily be avoided. Things like smoking in bed, using space heaters improperly or plugging too many electrical devices into a single plug often cause household fires. Along with installing smoke alarms and teaching people how to care for the alarm, we want to teach them how to get out of the house if the alarm sounds, and how they can avoid dangerous behavior that might start a fire.
Methods for providing fire safety education to people when a smoke alarm is installed in their home can be found in chapter 4, Smoke Alarm Installation.
Work with local media and other local organizations to publicize and promote fire safety and smoke alarms in the community.
The RFIP budget isn’t big enough to buy smoke alarms for every home in Kentucky that doesn’t have them, and there aren’t enough volunteer installers to put them up even if the alarms were available. Some people can’t afford alarms or don’t know how to install them, but many people can and will install their own smoke alarms if they believe that they need them. Part of the RFIP in each community is to try to get those who can to purchase and install their own smoke alarms. We also want to teach them ways to prevent fires from starting in their homes.
The media can be very helpful in this education program. Local newspapers and radio stations, cable TV systems and even local broadcast TV stations can all help teach people about fire safety and the need for smoke alarms. They can also provide information about your smoke alarm installation program, and tell people how to enroll to receive smoke alarms.
Many local media outlets want to provide community service information. It’s a service to the community that also makes them look good. One of the things that KIPRC expects from each lead local agency is that they develop a partnership with one or more local media outlets. More information about how to work with the media, and what the minimum media participation requirements are, can be found in chapter 5, Media Activities. You can also find some examples of press releases, radio public service announcements (PSAs) and newspaper advertisements in Appendix B: Media Materials.
Do fire safety education programs that reach at least 500 people in the community.
As we have already mentioned, it isn’t enough to have people sign up for smoke alarms and then to have someone install alarms in their home. Education is also important, both for the people who have alarms installed in their homes and for everyone else in the community. A major part of your local project should be aimed at doing education programs for various groups in your community.