USFA Kicks Off Smoking and Home Fires Campaign
IAFC and the Fire and Life Safety Section Urge Fire Departments to Take Part
Fairfax, Va., Jan. 9, 2008… The IAFC is a proud partner of the public-safety campaign announced today by the U.S. Fire Administration to end the number one cause of preventable home fire deaths: fires started by smoking materials.
The campaign includes a number of tools, available in English and Spanish, that fire departments can use for public education and awareness. The IAFC and the Fire and Life Safety Section urge members and others in the fire and emergency services community to review their public-education efforts around smoking and home fires and to use the resources provided as part of the campaign to enhance their programs as needed.
The IAFC, with the leadership of the Fire and Life Safety Section, continues to move forward on the national level to enhance public awareness and efforts on a variety of home fire-prevention issues, from reduced ignition-strength (“fire-safe”) cigarettes to residential sprinklers and a combination of photoelectric and ionization smoke alarms.
“This campaign is a model of the grassroots efforts that are critical to preventing deadly home fires,” said Chief Steven P. Westermann, IAFC President. “We can make great progress in the reduction of home fires by working with government and industry, but education of the public-and particularly smokers-can have immediate life-saving results.”
Tools provided by the campaign include statistics, free brochures and posters, as well as electronic resources such as English and Spanish-language websites and downloadable web banners.
More information on the campaign, including free educational resources, can be found online at www.usfa.dhs.gov/smoking (English) and www.usfa.dhs.gov/fumar (Spanish).
