NFPA Journal - July/August 2013 - (Page 36)
>>outreach
nfpa’s public education division
lisa braxton
The Right Interpretation
F
I
irst graf.
grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut, which was once an industrial
and financial force in New England. Over the past several decades,
Body
though, Bridgeport has experienced
a dramatic decline in its manufacturing industries and a steady slide in
population. I’ve seen for myself how
the city’s tenuous economic footing
has resulted in struggles to provide
FiREs haVE BEGUN when
recent immigrants tried to
cook meals by burning or
heating charcoal briquettes
on the electric stoves in
their apartments.
residents with adequate public protection, including fire service. It’s a
story that’s being repeated in cities
and towns—not just around New
this is a call-out.
England but across the country.
As one of those cities, Springfield,
Massachusetts, is working to rebuild
its devastated economy, and its fire
department faces a host of challenges. Because of significant budget
cuts since 2003, the Springfield Fire
Department has shuttered a fire station, closed down two companies, and
laid off more than 50 firefighters. The
department now runs three firefighters
per engine instead of four.
During this same period, however,
the city’s immigrant population has
mushroomed. English is spoken as
a second language in 34 percent of
Springfield’s households, compared
with 21 percent of households statewide. The growing population of
Somali, Russian, Nepali, Vietnamese,
and Latino immigrants generates a
large number of fire calls, which are
36
NFPA JOURNAL JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011
JULY/AUGUST 2013
often the result of unattended cooking or unsafe
cooking practices.
David Rivera, Springfield’s fire marshal, told
me that some emergency
responses are to fires
that started when recent
immigrants tried to cook
meals by burning or heating charcoal briquettes on
the electric stoves in their
apartments. “We needed a way to
communicate with them effectively
about fire prevention,” he said, “and
how to respond if a fire should happen in their home.”
The department didn’t have the
funding to provide targeted public
education to these high-risk groups,
which also include adults ages 65 and
up, so fire officials applied for NFPA’s
Rolf H. Jensen Memorial Public Education Grant. Each year, NFPA awards
$5,000 to a local fire department to
support a community-wide fire and
life safety education program or
campaign. The Springfield Fire Department was awarded this year’s grant for
its “Multi-Language Public Education
Fire Safety Initiative,” which will conduct fire safety presentations primarily
at the city’s various cultural and community centers.
A key component of this initiative is providing public education
to immigrants in their native languages. Fire department officials
contacted the interpreter and
translation services department at
Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, which will translate at no cost
messaging on planning for, and
escaping from, fire; cooking safety;
and other topics.
The initiative’s kickoff event was
the Springfield Vietnamese American Civic Association Health Fair in
April. The fire department hosted
a table along side other health and
safety agencies. Department personnel created fire safety poster
boards in Vietnamese and provided
handouts of NFPA’s easy-to-read
fire safety materials for distribution.
Certified interpreters discussed fire
safety with the public.
The department will evaluate
the program in three parts: a comparison of emergency response
numbers before and after the program’s implementation, instructor
evaluations, and a 10-question
survey in which program attendees respond to questions about
fire hazards in their homes. Fire
department officials hope that 80
percent of the attendees will pass
the survey.
“The community has been very
receptive,” Fire Marshal Rivera
told me. “We hope with this and
other events that we’ll see a drop
in dangerous fire behavior and
calls to the fire department.”
Lisa braxton is project manager
for nfpa’s public education division.
Photograph: Springfield FD
A community finds ways to reach high-risk groups
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - July/August 2013
NFPA Journal - July/August 2013
Contents
First Word
In a Flash
Perspectives
Firewatch
Research
Heads Up
Structural Ops
In Compliance
Buzzwords
Outreach
Electrical Safety
Wildfire Watch
Loud + Clear
Allied in Safety
Front Burner
Firefighter Fatalities in the United States, 2012
Fire Analysis + Research
Section Spotlight
What’s Hot
Looking Back
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