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Plan Your Education Program Around FEMAs New Safety Campaigns
FEMAs two new education campaigns for those 65 and older, and college
and university students, can be easily geared for use in your SCOTTY Fire
Safety House and your SCOTTY Combination Sprinkler/Fire Safety House.
People ages 65 and older face a dramatically increased risk of dying in a
home fire, said Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary of Homeland Security for
Emergency Preparedness and Response. With Americas older population larger
than ever and still growing, its important that we take steps to reduce
this public health problem.
Consider the staggering statistics: from 1989 to 1998, adults ages 65 and
older faced three times the risk of dying in a home fire compared to the
rest of the U.S. population. The risk at ages 65 to 74 is nearly double, and
it increased to nearly four times for people ages 75 to 84, and to more than
five times for people ages 85 and older.
The causes of most of these fire deaths are careless smoking, heating, and
cooking. Elderly Americans suffer from decreased mobility, health, sight,
and hearing, all of which may limit their ability to take quick actions to
escape during a fire. Fire departments can emphasize these risk factors
during adult fire safety lessons in their fire safety house.
For college and university education programs, your departments combination
sprinkler/fire safety house can be set up at a convenient location on campus
for fire safety and prevention classes. According to NFPA International,
over 1,700 fires a year occur in dormitories and Greek housing, causing $2.8
million in damages each year. Another area of significant concern is the
students living off-campus in houses and apartments. The U.S. Department of
Education estimates that 2/3 of the students enrolled fulltime in four-year
institutions live off campus. In an 18-month period from January 2000 to
July 2001, 17 students were killed in off-campus fires.
The common threads seen in off-campus fire fatalities often include lack of
automatic fire sprinklers, missing or disabled smoke detectors, careless
disposal of smoking materials, and alcohol, said Ed Comeau, director of the
Center for Campus Fire Safety. Sprinklers in student housing provide an
unparalleled level of fire safety, Comeau added. Sprinklers would have saved
lives in a fraternity fire at the University of North Carolina on May 9,
1996, which was not only graduation day but Mothers Day. Five students died
in that fire.
Along with automatic fire sprinklers, fire alarms that will give an early
warning of fire. Smoke alarms and sprinklers together will give everyone
the warning to get out and will control the fire, probably before the fire
department even arrives, said Comeau.
Adding specialized fire prevention programs for the elderly and college
students to your overall fire safety education plan is certain to be a bonus
when you write your Fire Act Grant narrative to purchase that SCOTTY Fire
Safety House! For more information on FEMAs new campaigns, check out their
Web site at: www.usfa.fema.gov . For
additional information on campus fire safety, check out
www.campusfire.org.
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