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Strategic Leap in Residential Fire Safety: Wide-Scale Home Visits
Track(s): Public Education

Philip Schaenman, TriData

Audio Sample:




Over the past decade fire departments in many other nations have found a way to make 40 to 50 percent reductions in fire deaths below the U.S. level, with little cost. Line firefighters and community volunteers, typically coordinated by prevention and station captains, visit a large percentage of the higher-risk homes to ensure they have working smoke alarms, and install alarms if needed. This session describes successful results from England and Canada, and how the concepts have been adapted in nine U.S. fire departments. Much greater percentages of high-risk homes have no working smoke alarm than expected. Synergism with health, social service, and police home visits enhances the program.

Philip Schaenman is president of the TriData Division of System Planning Corporation, and former Associate Administrator of the US Fire Administration. He has been undertaking research on the best prevention practices internationally for 30 years, much recently in a joint effort with CDC funded by FEMA. He also has evaluated prevention practices in over 100 fire departments in the US, and is assisting in demonstration programs in the US with the latest best practices. He has many publications and presentations related to prevention.