Fighting Fire With Smarts
How a Multi-Pronged Approach Can Reduce Fire Deaths of Youngsters
David Ehrlich, President, The Track Group, Inc.
http://www.usfa.fema.gov/usfaparents/about.shtm
Everybody knows that playing with fire is dangerous. But not so well known is that playing with fire is especially dangerous for kids.
Every year, more children younger than five are killed as a result of fires than car crashes. In 2002, about 1,200 children were killed or injured as a result of a fire, according to a June 2005 report by the Federal Emergency Management Association. Also, children younger than five are twice as likely to die in a residential fire than other Americans.
In the majority of fatalities, toddlers cause fires by playing with matches and lighters. Kathy Gerstner, fire program specialist for the U.S. Fire Administration, said children are just being naturally curious. “Usually, lighters and matches are lying around, and they don’t know the dangers of them. They don’t know the consequences of behavior,” Gerstner said. “They’re just in the bedroom and they set the sheets or the sofa on fire and pretty soon that spreads to other areas in the house.”
Multi-pronged approach
In an effort to reduce the number of fire fatalities, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2003 devised a social marketing campaign aimed at caregivers of young children. The campaign focuses on caregivers of many races and languages.
There have been changes in the campaign. Initially, it was aimed at parents, but after testing the idea with focus groups, officials realized that parents were not the only ones who cared for children, Gerstner said. Also, in the late spring or early summer, the campaign will put an extra emphasis on African Americans, whose children are more likely to be fire victims.
To reach the public, campaign officials came up with a multi-pronged approach.
One was a simple slogan—“Prepare. Practice. Prevent the Unthinkable.” It means that caregivers should prepare to make their homes safer from fire and practice fire safety, especially by devising a home fire escape plan.
Another was a recognizable icon. It is a photograph of a curly-haired, doe-eyed toddler, his hands grasping the crib, looking slightly away from the viewer. The image of vulnerability and innocence is meant to induce in caregivers feelings of responsibility.
A third approach was creating partnerships with like-minded organizations, including the National Fire Protection Association and National SAFE KIDS Campaign. In so doing, the campaign can tap into their networks.
For example, the American Academy of Pediatrics on its website has a page called “Fire prevention—Tips for Your Sitters” which offers six tips for babysitters. It can be found at http://www.aap.org/healthtopics/safety.cfm. Also, the organization Zero to Three on its website contains a one-page summary of the program. It can be found at http://www.zerotothree.org/Search/index2.cfm
A fourth approach was creating free campaign materials. Those include public service announcements, a nine-minute educational video on fire safety, poster, brochures, fact sheets, and materials in English and Spanish.
For example, the materials stress the importance of installing working smoke detectors, which reduce a resident’s risk of death by half. Two thirds of home fires that kill children occur in homes without a working smoke alarm. The materials go on to advise putting in a smoke detector on every level of the home, checking the alarm each month; and devise an escape route to take if a fire breaks out.
The Results
It used to be that fire fatalities were alarmingly common. In the late 1970s and early ‘80s, an estimated 12,000 Americans died annually as a result of fires. Now the figure is down to 4,000.
Although the campaign can’t take credit for that dramatic reduction, Gerstner believes it’s one piece of a general education campaign that has. “It usually takes quite a while, because changing people’s behavior isn’t easy,” Gerstner said.
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