Both smoke alarms and home fire sprinklers should be part of public education outreach.
There is no better opportunity to have an effective educational impact than at the fire scene or immediately post fire to explain the impact of both fire sprinklers and smoke alarms working together to prevent fire deaths and injuries. Be prepared to educate the media by keeping a fire sprinkler in your command vehicle and hand it to them to reinforce the message.
Following fatal residential fires, fire officials of the past would often talk about smoke alarms with the media and say, “smoke alarms could have prevented this fire death.” Those types of statements generally get the full attention of the public, but doesn’t fully describe the other combined potential.
Smoke alarms are important because they alert occupants of a fire reducing the chances of dying in a fire by half. Fire sprinklers actively work to control or extinguish the fire while it is small and provides occupants with the time to escape. The life and property protection benefits of fire sprinklers cannot be ignored.
Now imagine the impact if the fire officials also help up a fire sprinkler and stated, “when smoke alarms are combined with fire sprinklers, the risk of dying in a home fire is decreased by 80 percent.”
Smoke alarms and fire sprinklers together are the perfect fire protection duo. Keep both in your command vehicle.
Need fire sprinklers for your public relations outreach? Please contact the Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board at (708) 403-4468 or email NIFSAB@NIFSAB to request one at no cost.