Texas Fire Chief - Fall/Winter 2008 - (Page 20)

Fire Education By Captain Jeff Akin, Tyler Fire Department he fi re service today requires more from fi re departments than ever before. Where in the past a fi re department existed to extinguish fi res, today they exist to cover a multitude of duties. Some of the duties fi re departments are now responsible for include fi re prevention, fi re education, fi re suppression, fi re investigation, fi re code inspections, hazardous materials, technical rescue, aircraft fi refighting, emergency medical, emergency management, terrorism and anything else that a local jurisdiction may decide. The duties mentioned above include only the external services that fire departments provide to the public. There are also a multitude of internal duties that a department must provide unto itself such as hydrant maintenance, pre-fire plans, SCBA maintenance, hose, ladder and pump testing, PPE maintenance and many others. There are many different ways that departments can accomplish all of these internal duties. Many of the testing and maintenance duties can be contracted out to independent service providers (ISP) or they can be administered in-house by trained firefighting personnel. However these duties are accomplished, a program should be developed to give guidelines and to track the information. 20 4 DEVELOPING PROGRAMS T The program I have developed is a project for the Texas Fire Chief’s Academy. The initial scope of this project was to develop a fi re education program for the Tyler Fire Department and place it into operation within the schools in the City of Tyler. As I began to develop the project, I realized that the bigger picture was to develop proactive programs for all aspects of our fi re department duties. Through the development of these programs, you have the ability to expand the scope and evaluate the effectiveness of your work. The Tyler Fire Department program “Fire 4 Education” focuses on the fourth grade education level and we make contact with those students four times during the school year. By contacting the same students multiple times during a school year, we can expand the information that we provide and better educate them on aspects of fi re prevention and safety. We were able to develop a relationship with the schools, teachers and students. The future goal of the “Fire 4 Education” program is to include young adults, senior adults and a media package. Departments must be proactive rather than reactive in the development of these programs. The fi rst step in developing any program is to identify needs. In the process of identifying these TEXAS FIRE CHIEF Fall/Winter 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Texas Fire Chief - Fall/Winter 2008

Texas Fire Chief - Fall/Winter 2008 Contents Executive Director’s Report Texas Fire Chiefs Academy Project Reports Southwest Fire Rescue Conference Program Membership Application Customer Service Orientation in Fire Rescue Departments A Visit to the E-One Plant Index to Advertisers

Texas Fire Chief - Fall/Winter 2008

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