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KENTUCKY RESIDENTIAL FIREINJURY PREVENTION PROJECT

Local Project Coordinator’s Guide

Robert H. McCool, MSPrincipal Investigator and Project Manager

November, 2002

Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research CenterLexington, KY

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Table of Contents

Chapter Title Page

1. Introduction and Overview 3

2. Setup and Training 11

3. Telephone Surveys 15

4. Smoke Alarm Installation 23

5. Media Activities 31

6. Community Education 37

7. Records and Reports 39

8. The Follow-Up Check 43

9. Summary 47

A Appendix A: Project Staff 49

B Appendix B: Media Materials 51

C Appendix C: Forms 71

D Appendix D: Frequently Asked Questions 83

E Appendix E: Other Useful Information 87

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Introduction and Overview

The Residential Fire Injury Prevention Project (RFIP) is a program designed to reduce the number of deaths and injuries related to fires in Kentucky homes. The project should also reduce property damage by helping participants learn how to prevent fires, but property protection is not a specific goal of the project.

The RFIP is funded by the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), which is part of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The money for the project is provided to the Kentucky Department for Public Health. The department’s injury prevention programs are located in the Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center (KIPRC), a joint partnership program between the Department for Public Health and the University of Kentucky’s School of Public Health. When the federal money is received by the health department it is made available to KIPRC, where the RFIP staff insure that the program is carried out according to the terms of the agreement between the health department and the CDC.

Fire departments and other local program partner organizations are selected through a competitive mini-grant process. Those organizations that want to be a part of the RFIP submit applications, and a review team composed of fire service personnel, other public safety personnel and public health personnel determine which applications should be funded. Applications are rated on the need of the community, the apparent ability of the organization to do the necessary work, the willingness of the organization to commit in writing to doing the work, and the organization’s willingness to keep good records and follow up on alarms that have been installed.

Many local organizations receive money from state or federal sources. Some-times this is in the form of state or federal aid funds, to help pay for the operation of the organization, and sometimes it is in the form of grant funds. The biggest difference between these is that aid funds are usually non-competitive -- everyone who meets the minimum qualifications gets the money -- while grants are most often competitive. In either case, the funding programs that most local organizations are familiar with are not very complicated. The agency asks for money to do or buy a specific thing. If the request is approved, either a check is sent to the agency or the agency pays for something and then sends in a receipt. Whether the agency gets the money up front or is reimbursed later, there usually isn’t a lot of paperwork and follow-up involved. Once the item(s) funded by the grant or aid money have been purchased, and proof of that purchase provided to the funding agency, most of the record keeping is done.

The RFIP is a bit more complicated than that. There are specific things that have to be done in order to complete the project in a local community, and the local partner organization has to maintain certain records. The requirements for the RFIP are described in detail in the following pages. Directions and suggestions are also provided to help local agencies meet those requirements. By following these guidelines, and contacting the project coordinator or their assigned liaison when they have questions, any local organization should be able to complete the requirements for this project.

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Project Goals

It is important for local organizations to be aware of the project goals. Without knowing what the overall goals are it is hard for a local project coordinator to determine what needs to be done in his or her community to properly complete the project. The project goals for each participating community are:

1. Build partnerships with other community agencies, gather materials and train local personnel.

2. Gather information about the percentage of homes in the community that have smoke alarms before the project.

3. Install the smoke alarms received by the local organization in homes in the community that do not have smoke alarms, or that have inadequate smoke alarm coverage.

4. Provide fire safety education to the residents of each home where smoke alarms are installed.

5. Work with local media and other local organizations to publicize and promote fire safety and smoke alarms in the community.

6. Do fire safety education programs that reach at least 500 people in the community.

7. Keep records of all fire safety programs, media advertisements and news stories, and other programs related to the project.

8. Gather information about the percentage of homes in the community that have smoke alarms after the project.

9. Do a follow-up check on some of the alarms that were installed, six months after they were installed, to see how many are still working properly.

10.Provide clear, detailed information about the project to KIPRC on a regular basis.

Each of these goals is discussed in detail below.

Build partnerships with other community agencies, gather materials and train local personnel.

It is important for local organizations participating in the RFIP to understand that they will need help from other groups in their community in order to be successful. This is not a project that can be done by the Lone Ranger; it is a team project. Locating and enrolling eligible members of the community so that they can receive smoke alarms may require the help of the local health department, senior citizens’ groups, schools and family resource centers, day care centers, service clubs, community action groups, social services agencies and other groups who serve children, the elderly and those with low incomes.

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It is also important to locate groups who will provide good targets for fire safety education programs. Since goal 6 involves educating at least 500 people in the community about fire safety -- and does not include the in-home education provided for goal 4 -- it is important to find and work with groups who can help you reach vulnerable and high-risk groups within your community.

You will also need to gather materials during the setup period. You will be provided with a specified number of smoke alarms, along with a supply of brochures and educational materials for the residents of homes where alarms are installed. You will also be able to order up to one thousand dollars ($1,000) of additional fire safety education materials for doing community fire safety programs. You should select and order these materials early, to be sure that you receive them in time for your programs. The state project coordinator or your state liaison can provide you with more information about the supply process.

Finally, the individuals who will install the smoke alarms need to be trained. Most local organizations that participate as lead local partners will be fire departments, but even firefighters often don’t know the best way to install smoke alarms. Other organizations may also be doing installation, either as the lead local partner or in support of a project coordinated by another agency. Regardless of who the individuals are who will be installing the alarms, installer training needs to be conducted for them. You will need to contact the state project coordinator or your state liaison to schedule installer training for your personnel. Once you have developed trained and experienced installers they can usually do training for others if you add more installers later.

You can find additional information about the project setup process, as well as more information about the installer training course, in chapter 2, Setup and Training.

Gather information about the percentage of homes in the community that have smoke alarms before the project.

Many local organizations are concerned mainly with helping people, not with being able to show later whether or not what they did worked. Because this project is funded with federal tax money, it is important to be able to show how well the project works in each community. If KIPRC and the Department for Public Health do not provide this information to CDC each year, the funding for future years may be cancelled.

One way to show that the project works is to show that there was an increase in homes with smoke alarms in the community after the project has been done. In order to be able to do that, we have to know what percentage of homes in the community had smoke alarms before the project started. This is done by a random telephone survey of homes in the community. Detailed instructions for how to do the initial smoke alarm survey are found in chapter 3, Telephone Surveys.

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Install the smoke alarms received by the local organization in homes in the community that do not have smoke alarms, or that have inadequate smoke alarm coverage.

The RFIP is not just a “smoke alarm project” -- the education component of the project is also very important -- but smoke alarm installation is one of the major priorities of the project. Studies have shown that simply giving out smoke alarms to people does not provide much protection. Many of those who receive alarms forget to install them, or take the batteries out for some other use and forget to replace them. They can also put the alarms in a location where they won’t work properly or where they will be set off by steam from cooking or bathing. To solve these problems, the RFIP doesn’t give out alarms to individuals. Instead, volunteer installers from the local community actually install the alarms in homes that need them. That way we can be sure that the alarms were installed properly and that they were operating normally when they were installed.

The actual process of installing smoke alarms is covered in the alarm installer training class. Methods for organizing your local alarm installation program and how to keep records of it are explained in chapter 4, Smoke Alarm Installation.

Provide fire safety education to the residents of each home where smoke alarms are installed.

It isn’t enough to install smoke alarms in homes that don’t have them. Many people do not know how to take care of the alarms once they are installed, or what to do if an alarm sounds. They usually don’t have a home fire escape plan, and if they do, they may never have practiced it. If people don’t know how to take care of their smoke alarms and what to do if the alarm sounds, they are not being protected from fires.

We also want to help protect lives and property by preventing fires from starting. A warning from a smoke alarm usually allows people time to escape from a burning house safely, but sometimes people can be trapped by flames or smoke, and the alarm does nothing to save the house itself. Teaching people how to avoid residential fires is important, because most household fires are started by unsafe behavior that could easily be avoided. Things like smoking in bed, using space heaters improperly or plugging too many electrical devices into a single plug often cause household fires. Along with installing smoke alarms and teaching people how to care for the alarm, we want to teach them how to get out of the house if the alarm sounds, and how they can avoid dangerous behavior that might start a fire.

Methods for providing fire safety education to people when a smoke alarm is installed in their home can be found in chapter 4, Smoke Alarm Installation.

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Work with local media and other local organizations to publicize and promote fire safety and smoke alarms in the community.

The RFIP budget isn’t big enough to buy smoke alarms for every home in Kentucky that doesn’t have them, and there aren’t enough volunteer installers to put them up even if the alarms were available. Some people can’t afford alarms or don’t know how to install them, but many people can and will install their own smoke alarms if they believe that they need them. Part of the RFIP in each community is to try to get those who can to purchase and install their own smoke alarms. We also want to teach them ways to prevent fires from starting in their homes.

The media can be very helpful in this education program. Local newspapers and radio stations, cable TV systems and even local broadcast TV stations can all help teach people about fire safety and the need for smoke alarms. They can also provide information about your smoke alarm installation program, and tell people how to enroll to receive smoke alarms.

Many local media outlets want to provide community service information. It’s a service to the community that also makes them look good. One of the things that KIPRC expects from each lead local agency is that they develop a partnership with one or more local media outlets. More information about how to work with the media, and what the minimum media participation requirements are, can be found in chapter 5, Media Activities. You can also find some examples of press releases, radio public service announcements (PSAs) and newspaper advertisements in Appendix B: Media Materials.

Do fire safety education programs that reach at least 500 people in the community.

As we have already mentioned, it isn’t enough to have people sign up for smoke alarms and then to have someone install alarms in their home. Education is also important, both for the people who have alarms installed in their homes and for everyone else in the community. A major part of your local project should be aimed at doing education programs for various groups in your community.

Many fire departments and other local organizations already participate in safety education programs at local schools. In addition to schools, you can do fire safety programs at PTA/PTO meetings, senior citizens’ centers, public events such as county fairs, or almost anywhere else a group of people is available. Most people like to hear speakers from their local fire departments and service groups, and this is especially true if the speaker is talking about ways to stay safe. With a little creativity you can come up with all sorts of ways to educate people about fire safety. Some suggestions and ideas are included in chapter 6, Community Education.

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Keep records of all fire safety programs, media advertisements and news stories, and other programs related to the project.

One major difference between the RFIP and many other types of state or federal funding is the type and amount of record-keeping that is required from the lead local organization. Instead of simply purchasing approved equipment and turning in the receipts for reimbursement, or conducting one activity and submitting a short report, agencies coordinating local RFIP projects have to maintain records of what they did, when and where they did it, how many hours of time their personnel spent doing it, how many people they reached by doing it -- and who those people were. For example, typical records might look something like this:

January 22 at 10:15 AMFire safety education presentation for Mrs. Wilson’s second grade class at John Adams Elementary Firefighters J. Johnson and R. Smith; two hours each (including travel) Class lasted about 45 minutes; taught Stop, Drop and Roll, not to play with matches, how to call 911 and what to do if a smoke alarm sounds. 17 kids plus Mrs. Wilson in class

January 29 at 6:30 PM Our County Today talk show on WXYZ-AM radio Chief T. Watson; hour and a half (including travel) Interviewed on the air for 30 minutes about fire safety on local radio programRadio station says about 11,000 people listen to the program each day

By collecting information like this, the KIPRC team managing the project can compile reports for CDC that show what is being done, how many people are benefiting from it and how much time and effort local organizations are putting into doing the program. This information is used to justify continued funding for the program from CDC. The CDC project staff also use this information to help convince the US Congress to keep funding the project. More information about reporting is included in chapter 7, Records and Reports.

Gather information about the percentage of homes in the community that have smoke alarms after the project.

As you have already read, it is important for KIPRC and the Kentucky Department for Public Health to be able to show CDC that the project is making a difference in fire safety in Kentucky. One way to do that is to show that the percentage of homes in the community with working smoke alarms increased significantly during the project period. After the alarm installation and education portions of the project have been completed, a second random telephone survey must be conducted. It is done in the same way that the first survey was done. That way, the results of the two surveys can be compared. Instructions for how to do a random telephone smoke alarm survey can be found in chapter 3, Telephone Surveys.

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Do a follow-up check on some of the alarms that were installed, six months after they were installed, to see how many are still working properly.

Telephone surveys work well for getting a general idea about the percentage of homes with working smoke alarms, but they’re not accurate enough for some purposes. They only include homes with telephones, so some people are not included, and people may not always be honest if you ask them something that might embarrass them. For example, a person may not want to admit that the smoke alarm you installed for them three months ago isn’t working at the moment because they took the battery out to put into their child’s toy. The only way to get highly accurate information about how well the smoke alarms you’ve installed are working is to go out and see for yourself.

That’s exactly what lead local agencies are expected to do near the end of their year-long project. The KIPRC staff will help them select a group of at least 150 homes where they have installed smoke alarms. Personnel from the local organization will then return to those homes to check on the smoke alarms, and to ask the residents whether they have had any problems with the alarm. We also want to know, of course, if they’ve had a fire, and if they did, how well the alarm worked.

This part of the project involves quite a bit of time and work, and it doesn’t directly benefit the local community. It benefits Kentucky overall, of course, because it helps justify future funding for the project, but it doesn’t directly help the community where the work is being done, or the local agency doing it. For that reason, the lead local agency will be paid two thousand dollars ($2,000) to perform this work. That money can be used to pay the individuals doing the work, to buy supplies or equipment, or however else the local organization decides. More information about the follow-up check can be found in chapter 8, The Follow-Up Check.

Fire Reporting

In addition to these requirements, local organizations participating in this project are expected to submit reports to KIPRC of any fires that occur in homes where smoke alarms were installed. This should be done for a minimum of two years after the end of the smoke alarm installation period. The form for reporting this information can be found in Appendix C: Forms. If a local organization conducting the project is not a fire department, they will need to get this information from the appropriate fire department.

Chapter Summary

By now you should have a better idea about what the RFIP project is, and what your organization’s responsibilities are. Please read the following chapters. They provide more detailed information about what you will need to do and how it should be done. Once you have read this information, please discuss it with the state project coordinator or your state liaison. You can also contact these individuals at any time if you have questions or comments about the project. Their contact information is listed in Appendix A: Project Staff.

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Local Project Coordinator’s Checklist

[ ] Build partnerships with other community agencies: public health, fire service, senior citizens’ centers, schools and family resource centers, etc.

[ ] Find a media partner willing to help support the project and develop agreement

[ ] Work with state project staff to get materials

( ) smoke alarms

( ) installation year stickers

( ) educational materials for homes where alarms are installed

( ) other educational materials selected for your community

[ ] Train local installers (coordinate training sessions with state project liaison)

[ ] Conduct a pre-project telephone survey

[ ] Conduct fire safety programs:

( ) Install the smoke alarms in homes in the community that do not have alarms

( ) Provide fire safety education to the residents of homes receiving alarms

( ) Work with local media and other local organizations to promote fire safety

( ) Do fire safety education programs for at least 500 people in the community

( ) Keep records of all fire safety programs, including media items

( ) Submit regular reports to the state project staff (monthly or as requested)

[ ] Do another telephone survey after the installation process to see if the percentage of homes in the community that have working smoke alarms has changed

[ ] Six months after they were installed, do an in-person follow-up on a portion of the alarms installed to see how many are still working properly

[ ] Send final end-of-project information to the state project staff

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Setup and Training

Proper setup procedures can make or break a local RFIP program. This chapter will provide information that can help you get your program up and running smoothly. The sooner your program is operating, the more time you will have to complete it, and the sooner you will learn about any changes or corrections that you may need to make in order to have the best local program possible.

When an agreement has been reached to fund your organization under this project, a state liaison will be assigned to your project. The liaison is the member of the state project staff who is primarily responsible for communicating with you, setting up all necessary training, coordinating the delivery of supplies for your program and collecting periodic program reports and updates. If you have questions about any part of the project, contact your assigned state liaison for assistance.

The Local Coordinator

One of the first things that a lead local organization must do is to designate a local project coordinator. If you are reading this document, you have probably been designated by your organization to coordinate the local project, or to assist the designated local coordinator. A local coordinator has a great deal of responsibility for the project. He or she receives smoke alarms and educational materials from the KIPRC staff, orders and receives the additional educational materials that are selected by the local organization, ensures that the enrollment process is going smoothly, assigns alarms and enrollment forms to installer teams, collects the completed installation forms from the installers once the alarms have been installed, and maintains records of other project activities such as media releases and public education programs. The local coordinator is also responsible for building partnerships with local media outlets, service clubs and other groups that can help with the project, and keeping track of what those partner groups are doing.

As you can see, the job of local project coordinator isn’t for someone who is afraid of hard work, or who is shy or uncomfortable with keeping records. If you are not comfortable working with others, arranging meetings with local reporters or newspaper editors and trying to “sell” them on your project, or keeping accurate records, you will probably not enjoy being the project coordinator for your agency. If you feel uncomfort-able with the idea of coordinating a busy local project, consider turning the position over to someone else in your organization who might enjoy the job more.

Your state liaison will meet with you to insure that you are familiar with the duties and responsibilities of a local coordinator, and to review the material in this guide with you. If you need information or have a question about the project, please feel free to contact your state liaison or the state project coordinator. They can provide advice and information about the project and help you develop a workable plan for your local project.

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If you are the local project coordinator, you can reduce your level of work – and stress – by recruiting competent assistants. It is not only acceptable but also desirable to delegate some of the workload to others. If someone in your organization is good at keeping notes and records, they might be a good choice to put in charge of keeping the required reports for the project. Someone who enjoys talking to others and who isn’t nervous about speaking to groups may be the best person to give radio interviews and do large educational programs.

One of the keys to managing a successful local project is to assign personnel to jobs that they are good at. If you don’t have someone who is good at a particular job, however, that doesn’t mean that you have to do it yourself. If you have established a working relationship with other groups in your community, you may find someone from another organization who can do that job for you.

Establishing Links With Other Local Groups

It is possible for a group to run a successful local project by themselves. This is especially true for groups that are large and well funded. We don’t recommend trying to do this, however. If you can find other groups and individuals who are willing to work with you, include them in your project.

There are several advantages to working with other groups. First, it spreads the work around. Many of the lead local agencies are volunteer groups, such as volunteer fire departments, and their members are already busy with plenty of other jobs before they even start with a local RFIP project. Having other groups available to provide help can make the workload more manageable for a volunteer organization.

Other groups may also have resources that you don’t have. A school district or family resource center can help you reach families with young children. A senior citizen’s group or a religious group may be able to help you reach elderly residents. Someone in a local service club may be a radio station manager or a newspaper editor. A local Scout troop or service club may be willing to go door-to-door to locate residents who need smoke alarms and enroll them in the project. A local business may be willing to keep enrollment forms on their counter and let you put a sign advertising your program in their window. Just about everyone has something that they can do for your program; the goal is to get them to offer it.

Finally, a message that they hear from many different sources makes a much bigger impression on people than does one they hear from just a few people. Your community may expect to hear fire safety messages from their fire department, but if they also receive the same message from their local radio stations and newspapers, and from Scouts signing up people for smoke alarms at a local business, they are more likely to pay attention. When it seems like everyone else is doing something, people want to be a part of it. The more groups and organizations you can get to spread the message, the more likely people are to hear it and take it seriously.

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There are many potential partners in every community. You have already read about schools, family resource centers, and senior citizens’ groups as partners who can help you reach specific target groups. Some other organizations that can help you are churches and religious groups, businesses, service clubs such as the Jaycees, Kiwanis, Civitan clubs, Ruritan clubs, the Rotary Club and the Lions. Youth organizations such as Scout troops, religious youth groups and high school or college clubs can be a great source of energetic, motivated workers. Decide what you need done, and then figure out who can help you do it. Remember, the goal isn’t just to install smoke alarms; it’s to change an entire community so that everyone takes fire safety seriously.

Recruit help as soon as you have the opportunity. Meet with the leaders of local clubs and organizations, local business managers and others who may be able to help you. Explain what your group is doing, why improving fire safety is important to the community, and how helping with the project can benefit their group. It helps to know a little bit about the group you are dealing with, and what their mission is. Different organizations want different things. A local service club may help you just to benefit the community. Businesses often look for good public relations opportunities and media exposure, while some youth groups may be earning status or awards by helping perform community service projects. If you know what motivates a group, you can usually find something in your project that they can do that will meet both their needs and yours. Not everyone will agree to help you, but you can probably find several good partners in your community if you talk with other local organizations.

Media partners are particularly important. One of the major goals of the project is to have at least one new media activity each month in each local community. Different types of media that can be used, either at the same time or in different months. You may run an ad in a local newspaper one month, then a series of PSAs on a radio station the next month. News stories, ads and PSAs, letters to the editor – they’re all good ways to publicize your project and spread the message about fire safety. You can find more information about working with the media in chapter 5, Media Activities. The most important things to remember are to start recruiting media partners early, and to work closely with them. You can never have too much good press.

Materials Provided by KIPRC

The state project staff at KIPRC will provide you with the number of smoke alarms you were awarded by the selection committee. The minimum number of alarms that a local project is expected to install is three hundred (300), and local projects often install one thousand (1,000) alarms or more. Your alarms will be delivered in shipments; you will need to return the installation record forms for most of a shipment before the next shipment will be delivered.

The alarms provided by KIPRC are all battery powered ionization-type smoke alarms. These alarms are powered by a 9-volt lithium battery that is warranted to last ten years with normal use. The alarms are purchased through a bidding process, with a single large order made each year to obtain the lowest price per alarm.

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If a local agency has a need for specialized alarms, it is important to let the state project manager know as soon as the agency has been selected for an award. In rare cases specialized alarms can be provided, though if they are more expensive than the original alarms, the total number provided to the agency may be reduced. In most cases highly specialized alarms are not available through the project.

KIPRC will also provide printed brochures and other educational materials for use by the smoke alarm installation teams when they are educating residents about how to care for their new smoke alarms, and what to do if the alarm sounds. The amount of materials provided is based upon the number of alarms provided, and the estimated number of alarms that will be installed per home. The supply of these items is limited, and they must be used during the alarm installation process, so local organizations are strongly cautioned not to use these materials for other fire safety education activities.

Other Educational Materials

In addition to the brochures and printed materials provided for use in educating residents who have received smoke alarms, each lead local organization receives credit for one thousand dollars ($1,000) that can be used to purchase additional fire safety education materials. These materials are intended to support general fire safety education in the community (see goal 6). Because people who live and work in the community know it best, the lead local agency is allowed to select its own materials.

The KIPRC staff handles the purchase of these materials. The local project coordinator is responsible for forwarding a list of materials, vendors and prices to the state project coordinator or state liaison. KIPRC will then order the materials and have them shipped to the local organization. In order to be sure that your organization receives these materials in time to have them available when you need them, you should select them and send in your order as early as possible. It will usually take 6 to 8 weeks to receive the materials once you have ordered them.

Installer Training

The local personnel who will be installing smoke alarms need to complete the two-hour installer training course. This course will teach them about the different types of smoke alarms, where alarms should and should not be installed, and how to properly install the alarms. Firefighters can receive fire service training credit for this course. All course materials are provided by KIPRC.

The initial course(s) will be taught by one or more members of the KIPRC project staff. If your organization has personnel who are qualified to conduct adult education and training courses, they can teach later courses once they have completed the course themselves. To schedule installer training for your personnel contact the state project coordinator or your state liaison.

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Telephone Surveys

For most local organizations, installing smoke alarms and conducting fire safety education are the key parts of the project. Those are the parts that directly save lives, of course, and they certainly are important. Unfortunately, it isn’t always enough to do good things. We have to also be able to show that we are making a real difference in the community.

One way to do this is by comparing the percentage of homes with working smoke alarms before the project with the percentage of homes that have them after the project has been done. If the project is successful we should find a measurable increase from the pre-project figure to the post-project figure.

There are different ways to measure the percentage of homes with working smoke alarms in a community. The ideal way, of course, would be to have trained personnel visit and inspect each home in the community. Then we would know exactly how many homes had smoke alarms and how many didn’t. Unfortunately, that’s not a practical solution; it would take more time and personnel that anyone has available, and even then some folks would not allow inspectors to check their home for smoke alarms. Obviously something more practical has to be done.

The RFIP uses a telephone survey system to measure the percentage of homes with working smoke alarms in the community. This system isn’t perfect; some homes don’t have telephones, or have unlisted numbers, and some residents won’t answer telephone surveys. In other cases residents may not tell the truth about whether they have smoke alarms in their home, or they may think that the alarms are working when they really aren’t. Some of these problems can be partly corrected by asking specific questions, but others just have to be accepted.

Two telephone surveys are performed in each community. The first should be done before anyone is enrolled for a smoke alarm installation, and before information about the project is released to the media. Later, after the smoke alarm installations and fire safety education activities have been completed, a second survey is taken. Since it is taken in the same way as the first survey, they should have very similar results, even if the results are not a perfect picture of the real percentage of homes with smoke alarms in the community. If there is a large difference between the results of the two surveys, and both were done properly, then we can usually assume that the project activities caused the change.

For the surveys to mean anything it is very important that they be done correctly. While 120 people may seem like a lot when you are calling them on the telephone, in reality that’s not very many people. Just two incorrectly marked interview forms can produce a difference of almost 1.7 percent in the survey results. Since the change in the numbers for even the most successful project is often only a few percent, it becomes very important to do the survey properly.

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Doing the Survey

There are several steps to performing the telephone survey process correctly. This section will guide you through those steps. You should also talk with the state project coordinator or your state liaison before doing your first telephone survey. They can help you select a sample and perform the survey correctly.

Terms You Should Know

This book isn’t designed to teach you how to do research statistics. There are a few terms that you will probably hear from the KIPRC staff, however, so you need to know what they mean. Those terms are defined below:

Population: the whole group of people or things that you want to know something about. If you want to do a survey to find out how many people in a particular town eat pizza at least once per week, then the population for your survey is everyone who lives in that town. If you wanted to know how many men who are 21 to 35 years old and who live in Kentucky like University of Kentucky basketball, then the population would be men who are 21 to 35 years old and who live in Kentucky.

A population doesn’t have to be just people. If you wanted to know how many factories in Kentucky employ at least 50 people, then the population is the number of factories – not people – in Kentucky. That is because you are measuring something about factories, not about individual people.

For the RFIP, the population is the number of households (homes) in the area served by the lead local agency. For example, if the lead agency is a fire department, the population would be all households (not individuals) in their fire district.

Sample: the group of people or things that you actually measure. It isn’t practical to talk to every male aged 21 to 35 in Kentucky, but we can talk to some of them and then estimate what the others think by assuming that they are similar to the ones that we’ve talked to. If we locate two hundred men from around Kentucky who are at least 21 years old but not older than 35 and ask them if they like UK basketball, we have taken a survey of a sample of the population. If two thirds of the fellows we talked to like UK basketball, then we might be able to assume that two thirds of all Kentucky men in the same age group like UK basketball.

Using a sample is a good way to measure a population that’s too large to measure directly, if we select the sample at random. As long as every man in Kentucky who fit into the age group had an equal chance of being picked for an interview, then our sample would probably be accurate. What if we asked only men from Kentucky aged 21 to 35 who were coming out of a basketball arena after a game? Do you think that they might like UK basketball more than someone who was at a NASCAR race that day instead? What if the game they were watching was a UK game – or a University of Louisville game? Obviously, whom you pick to be part of your sample has a big influence on what results you get. The only way that a sample means anything is if the people in it are selected from the population at random.

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N: a term used to refer to the number of people or items in the sample. If we do a survey and call 500 people, but only 267 actually answer our questions, then the N for our survey is 267. If we visit 300 homes to check for smoke alarms, but only get to check 184 of them, then the N for that survey would be 184. A larger N is usually better.

Response rate: the percentage of people who actually answer our survey questions, or the percentage of homes we are able to check for smoke alarms -- in short, the percentage of individuals surveyed who actually answer our questions. If we survey 200 households but only 100 of them actually answer our survey questions, then the response rate for our survey is ½, or 50 percent. Higher response rates are better.

Data: a fancy word for information. If we collect information by calling people and asking them questions, their answers to the questions are data.

Now that you know some of the terms, we will discuss the details of doing a telephone survey for the RFIP.

Determining the Population

The actual population for the survey is the number of households – not people – in the area being served by the project. If that area is a fire district, then the population is the number of households in that district. If the area served is an entire county, then the population would be the number of homes (of any type) within the county.

The number of households within a city or county can usually be obtained from US Census information. The number of households in a fire district or other area smaller than a county may not be easy to find, but you can usually find it. If you don’t know the number of households in your service area, contact your local public library or your county’s Property Valuation Administrator (PVA). If you still cannot get this information, contact the KIPRC staff for assistance.

Once you know how many households are in your community, you will need a list of those with telephones. Unless you have a large percentage of people with unlisted telephone numbers, a public telephone directory should work fine. If it includes people who live in areas outside of your community, you will need to mark those individuals who live in your community. Finally, count the number of households on your list. Since there is no way to call those households in the community that aren’t on the list, the actual working population for your survey is the households who are on the call list.

Determining the Sample Size

The sample size, or N, that you need is always going to be 120 or more. That’s the number needed to make the statistics work properly when the pre-project survey and the post-project survey are compared.

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Some people won’t be home, or will have had their telephones discon-nected, or will refuse to answer your questions, so you can’t just call 120 people and expect to get 120 answers to your survey. You will probably have to call about 250 people to get 120 answers. If your organization is well known in the community, and people don’t mind getting calls from your personnel, then you may not need to call quite as many people to get 120 of them to answer your questions. On the other hand, in some areas you might need to call 300 or more people to find 120 who will talk to you and answer questions about smoke alarms. One key point is that you have to decide how many people that you will call before you start calling, and you need to call all of them. Don’t just stop calling when you get 120 responses. If you do this, it will unbalance your survey just as much as it would if you were asking only people leaving a basketball game whether they liked basketball.

In most cases, it’s easiest to assume that you will need to call 250 households. That may result in more than 120 responses, but that’s OK; we just need at least 120.

Determining the Interval

Once you know how many households are on your list (your working population), divide it by the number of households that you think you will need to call (usually 250) in order to get at least 120 responses. The number that you get is what we will call the interval.

For example, if you have 1,318 households on your list, and you plan to call 250 of them, then the interval is found by dividing 1,318 by 250. That gives a result of 5.27. Rounding that number off to a whole number gives an interval of 5. That’s how far apart on the list the households are that you would call.

If you called every fifth household on a list of 1,318 households, you would actually make 263 calls. If all went well, someone in at least 120 of them would answer your survey questions.

Determining the Starting Point

Once you have determined the interval, the only thing left to do is to figure out where on the list to start counting. The easiest way to do that is to have someone pick a random number between one and the interval number you just determined. Thus, if your interval was five, you would ask someone to pick a number from one to five.

Making the Calls

Let’s suppose that the person you asked picked four as the random starting point. You would count down to the fourth household on your list and call them. Then you would count down the interval – five, in the case of our example – to find the next household to call. You would call every fifth household, starting with the fourth on the list, until you had gone through the entire list.

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When someone answers the telephone, tell him or her who you are and why you are calling. Be sure to explain that you are not asking them to buy anything or make a donation, but that you are only conducting a fire safety survey. Explain that the survey will take less than five minutes and that all responses are confidential. If the person does not want to participate in the survey, thank them and hang up, then count down to the next number to be called and call it. If a person is willing to participate in the survey, ask them the questions on the survey form.

Asking Questions and Recording Information

When you call someone who is willing to answer your questions, be sure to ask the questions carefully and write down the answers. Read the questions as they are written, but be ready to explain them if the person doesn’t understand them. Make sure that you understand the person’s answers, and that the information recorded on the survey form makes sense. If you are not sure what a person means by a particular response, ask more questions until you understand what he or she means. Avoid auto-matically writing down responses without thinking about them.

For example, look at the section of a survey form listed below. What’s wrong with it?

If you look carefully you will notice that the numbers just don’t add up. The form indicates that there is one person between the ages of 6 and 17 in the household, two between the ages of 18 and 64, and one who is over 65. That is a total of four people. When you look at the total number of residents listed, however, it shows only three people. There is an error on the form -- either the total number of residents shown is too low, or there is an extra person listed in one of the age categories who doesn’t exist.

Another example of a survey form error is shown below. In this case, the answer simply doesn’t fit the question.

Total number of individuals living in the household? _______

How many of Birth to age 5 _____ 6 to 17 _________ these people are: 18 to 64 __________ 65 or older _____

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2 1

3. How many of the smoke alarms are working? __________ yes

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The problem is that “Yes” is not a valid answer to a question that asks for a number. Does it mean that all three of the alarms work, or that some of them work, or that at least one works? We don’t know, and once the telephone call is completed, there’s no way to find out. That is why it’s important to make sure that you understand answers before you write them down.

When you have asked all the questions on the survey, ask the person if there’s anything else that they would like to add. If there is, write down their comments on the back of the form. Thank the person for answering your questions and end the call.

After the call is completed take a moment to look over the survey form and make sure that the information you wrote on it is clear and legible. Then count down your list to the next number to be dialed and make your next call.

What if the sample size is too small?

In some cases, even calling 250 people may not be enough to get 120 or more completed surveys. This is especially true if you call during the day, when many people are at work. There are two ways to deal with this problem, depending upon why you did not get 120 responses.

If you did not get an answer for most of your calls, simply recall those numbers at a different time, such as during the evening or on a Saturday. Be sure to recall all numbers that did not answer the first time; don’t just stop calling when you get 120 completed surveys. It is important that everyone has the same chance to participate in the survey.

If you made contact with most of the people who were originally selected to be called, but they did not agree to answer the survey questions, you will need to select another sample and repeat the survey process. The second sample size should be based upon the number of responses you still need to reach 120 and the response rate to the first round of calls. For example, if you called 200 people and only received 80 responses then the response rate is 40 percent. This means that you will probably need to call about 2½ times as many people as you need responses from.

Because you only have 80 responses, you need 40 more. Multiplying 40 by 2½ gives a result of 100. You will need to call 100 more people to be reasonably sure of getting 40 more responses. You may want to add a “fudge factor” to this number, to be sure that you will get enough responses. For example, you might want to call 120 people instead of 100.

Once you know the number of people that you will need to call in your second round of calling, follow the remaining survey steps in the same way that you did during the first round of calling. Determine the interval and starting point (see page 18) and make the calls.

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Reviewing and Submitting the Survey Results

Once the survey has been completed, review the forms again to make sure that you have at least 120 properly completed forms. Submit the completed survey forms to your state liaison. Starting smoke alarm installation or public education activities before you complete the survey will make the results useless, so do not start signing up households to receive smoke alarms, installing smoke alarms or conducting public fire safety education activities until you have completed the preliminary survey process and been notified by your state liaison that the survey is acceptable.

The Follow-Up Survey Process

After the smoke alarm installation portion of your local project has been completed, you will need to do another telephone survey to see whether or not there has been a change in smoke alarm use in your community. The second survey will be conducted just like the first one. Do not call exactly the same households in the second survey that you called in the first survey. You will probably use the same list of households and telephone numbers, and the interval between telephone numbers on your list may be the same, but you should choose a different starting point using a random number (see page 18). If the number of households on your list has changed, or you believe that you need to call a different number of households in the second survey to get at least 120 completed responses, then the interval may also change.

The telephone survey process sounds complicated, but it’s really not hard to set up or do. Contact your state liaison if you have any questions about the process, or need help to set up the survey in your community.

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Smoke Alarm Installation

Installing smoke alarms is a major part of the project. It isn’t the only important part, but it is certainly very important. Properly installing smoke alarms in homes in your community can protect residents from fire-related injuries and death. It can also be a good way to make contact with residents so that you can educate them about fire safety, and a good public relations program for your organization.

Unfortunately, a poorly-run smoke alarm installation program can also be a major headache for everyone involved. It is important that your organization develop a well-organized and effective smoke alarm installation program. The information in this chapter will help you do that. You can also contact your state liaison for information and suggestions.

Selecting and Training Installers

Your organization will need to provide individuals who can install smoke alarms in homes in your community. These individuals do not have to be firefighters; they can be members of auxiliary organizations, service clubs, other public safety agencies or just citizens interested in serving their communities. The primary installers must be at least 18 years old, although you can have youth volunteers assist them with installations if you wish to do so.

As you read on page 14, the individuals who actually install the alarms need to complete a short training class. The class is about two hours long, and includes information on where and how to install alarms as well as how to properly fill out and return the enrollment and installation forms used by the project. You should work with your state liaison to schedule the first training session(s) for your organization. If you have your own training instructors, they can conduct the training once they have become experienced installers.

Remember that your installers will be representing both your organization and the state project team when they enter homes. Try to select individuals who are neat and well-groomed, polite and comfortable talking to people. Honesty and competence are essential, too. Since installers are responsible for providing fire safety education and keeping records as well as installing smoke alarms, individuals who are able to do these things well should be included in each installation team.

Enrolling Households

Before you can install smoke alarms you will have to locate homes that need them, and residents who are willing to allow you to install alarms in their home. This is done by contacting and signing up residents in your community to receive smoke alarms. This process will be referred to as enrollment. During the enrollment process a resident who is at least 18 years of age fills out the top portion of the Smoke Alarm Enrollment and Installation Record form (see Appendix C: Forms) and requests that free smoke alarms be installed in his or her home.

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The key is to find ways to reach people so that they can fill out the forms. There are dozens of different ways to enroll residents in your community. You should definitely conduct a media campaign to advertise the program. The PSAs and ads that you use should include information about how to sign up to receive smoke alarms. Beyond that, you can use your imagination and the local resources in your community.

Enrollment doesn’t have to be done by your organization. In some communities, local businesses have helped by keeping enrollment forms at their counters and allowing customers to enroll while they are in the business. The business then holds the forms until they are picked up by someone from the local organization doing the program, or mails them to that organization. This method works particularly well in locations where people already have to fill out paperwork, such as banks and credit unions, rental businesses and pharmacies.

You can reach many people in your community who may need smoke alarms through your local health department. If your health department is willing to help enroll residents for you they can help you reach homes with small children by referring participants in their WIC and prenatal care programs. Other health care providers such as physicians, chiropractors, hospitals and clinics also make good partners in the program. Physicians and nurses can be especially effective partners in enrollment programs if they are willing to talk to their patients about fire safety as part of the health information that they provide.

Day care centers, pre-school programs, public and private schools and family resource centers operated by school districts are very good ways to reach families with young children in your community. Many of these organizations are already working to keep children safe and are willing to work with you to promote fire safety. You can offer enrollment forms to parents when they pick up or drop off children, or send forms home with older children. Keep in mind, however, that some students may lose the forms or forget to show them to their parents.

One fire department distributed enrollment forms to every child in the elementary school located in their fire district. Children who returned the form with a parent’s signature on it were entered into a drawing for small prizes, even if the parent stated that they already had smoke alarms or did not want them. This activity involved the children in promoting fire safety to their parents and resulted in the majority of the forms being returned. Other types of enrollment programs in schools can also work well, and also help promote cooperation between your organization and the school.

You can often reach low-income residents through programs such as food banks, heating assistance programs and community action programs. Older residents can often be enrolled through the help of local senior citizens’ centers. Churches and religious organizations are also good sources of enrollments, either from their own members or from community service activities sponsored by youth groups or service programs affiliated with them.

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In addition to finding organizations that can help you by conducting enrollments as part of their normal operations, you may also be able to find groups that will help you do enrollments through door-to-door canvassing, or by setting up an enrollment table or booth at public events and popular locations in your community. Scout troops, church or religious organization youth groups, and groups like the Farm Bureau are all potential sources of help. Service clubs such as the Civitan Club, JayCees, Kiwanis, Lions Club, Rotary Club, Ruritan Club and others may also be willing to help you enroll residents in your community.

Door-to-Door Canvassing

Some local organizations choose conduct door-to-door canvassing programs to locate residents in their communities who need smoke alarms. This is usually done by members of the local organization that is coordinating the project, but sometimes canvassing is done by other local partners such as the members of a service club or youth group. However it is done, this activity works best in areas where homes are fairly close together. It is possible to drive from home to home in more rural areas to do a canvassing program, but this often takes more time and money than most local organizations can afford.

There are two types of canvassing programs. In the first type, the goal is to sign up residents for the program but to have the smoke alarms installed at a later time by a installation team. This type of canvassing works well when the people doing the door-to-door canvassing are volunteers from another organization who are not trained as installers. They can cover all of the homes in an area and identify those where residents need and want smoke alarms, then turn the Smoke Alarm Enrollment and Installation Record forms over to the local coordinator who then assigns installer teams to do the installations. This method works best in areas where there are a lot of homes but only a fairly small number of them need smoke alarms.

The other method involves enrolling residents and installing alarms on the same visit. This method works well when the people doing the canvassing are also trained installers, and where the number of homes where smoke alarms will be needed is expected to be high. By doing installations as they go, the teams avoid the need to return to the same area later.

Doing the Installation

It is required that all smoke alarms provided to residents by this program be installed by an installer representing the program. Some residents will ask for alarms, but want to install the alarms themselves. This is not acceptable, as there is no way to be certain that they will actually remember to install the alarms and be able to install the alarms properly. If a resident is not willing to have the alarms installed by someone from the local project team, or install them themselves in the presence of someone from the local project team, they should not be given smoke alarms.

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The installer training course (see page 14) will provide installers with information about how and where to install alarms, and how to complete the required paperwork. It is important that installers follow the process taught in the course when they are doing installations. Installers who have questions should contact their local coordinator. If the local coordinator cannot answer a question he or she should forward it to the state liaison or state project coordinator.

It is strongly recommended that installers work in teams of two or three, rather than as single individuals. While this is sometimes inconvenient for volunteers, who may be installing a few alarms at a time at odd hours, it makes the process safer and more efficient for the installers. Since they will be going into private homes throughout the community, having installers work as a team has several benefits. It helps reduce the chance that an installer will be unfairly accused of taking or damaging someone’s property while doing an installation. It also reduces the chance of an attack on an installer by a person or animal, and provides help if an incident or injury does occur.

Having two or more installers on a team also helps the installation process go more smoothly. With two installers, one can provide fire safety education and review home fire escape plans with the residents while the other installs the alarms. This reduces the amount of time needed to do the installation and helps keep the residents from interrupting the installer who is trying to install the alarms. It also allows those installers who enjoy talking with people to handle the education portion of the visit while those who are more mechanically inclined can focus on putting in the alarms.

Fire Safety Education for Residents Who Receive Alarms

It is very important that residents who receive alarms also receive thorough fire safety education. They should learn about the smoke alarm, including what the alarm sounds like and how to recognize a low-battery alert; how to test and maintain the alarm; and what to do if the smoke alarm sounds. They need to learn how to develop a home fire escape plan and why it is critical that they practice their plan regularly. Ways to prevent fires in the home should also be discussed.

Educational materials (cards and brochures) are provided by KIPRC to help reinforce these messages, but handing out brochures is not the same thing as doing education. The installer(s) who are responsible for doing the educational portion of the installation visit must take the time to explain these subjects to all of the residents who are home when the installation is done. They should explain each subject carefully, and ask questions to insure that the residents understand what they have been told. This part of the installation visit should not be rushed. It is important that all residents understand basic residential fire safety principles, how to test and maintain their new smoke alarm(s), and what to do if the alarm sounds. The education is just as important as the alarm installation; it does no good to install alarms for people who do not know how to maintain them or what to do if an alarm sounds.

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Doing the Paperwork

Every installation should begin with a Smoke Alarm Enrollment and Installation Record form, with the enrollment section of the form completed and signed by a resident of the household who is at least 18 years old. If canvassing is being done, and alarms are being installed as households are enrolled, installers should be sure that the enrollment section of the form has been completed and signed before they begin installing alarms. If a person wants to receive free smoke alarms but does not want to sign the form, it is strongly recommended that the installation not be done, since the signed installation form is the installers’ only proof that they were invited into the home.

If enrollments are taken in advance, the local project coordinator should note which installer(s) a particular home has been assigned to on the form, in the space provided at the top of the installation section of the form. The local coordinator should also make a record of the address and telephone number, the name of the resident requesting the installation, and the installer(s) to whom the job was assigned. This will let him or her keep track of what homes have been enrolled and whom they have been assigned to for installation.

Once the installation team arrives at a home, they should record the number of people who live in that home in the installation section of the form. They should also record the race and/or ethnicity of the head of the household, whether the household has ever experienced a fire and if so, when the fire occurred. Once they have installed one or more alarms in a home, the number of alarms installed should also be recorded in the appropriate space in the installation section of the form, along with the date and time of the installation. Finally, the lead member of the installation team should sign the bottom of the installation section of the form. The back (pink) copy of the form should be left with an adult resident of the household.

After they have completed an installation trip, the installer team should return all completed installation forms to you, their local coordinator. You should remove the second (yellow) copy of the form and retain it for your organization’s records. It is not required that local organizations maintain copies of the installation forms once the original (white) copy has been returned to KIPRC, but it is suggested that you do retain the forms for several years, because they contain the signed waiver and other information that might be useful if a claim or charges of improper conduct were made against the organization or an installer.

The original (white) copies of all completed Smoke Alarm Enrollment and Installation Record forms should be given or mailed to your state liaison at least once per month. If you choose to mail the forms, please select delivery confirmation or certified mail with return receipt as your postage option, so that the package can be tracked if it is lost in the mail. In most cases your state liaison will visit you at least once per month to check on the progress of your project and provide any needed assistance, as well as to pick up any completed forms or reports.

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Inventory and Record-Keeping

In addition to providing completed Smoke Alarm Enrollment and Installation Record forms to their state liaison on a regular basis, the local coordinator is also responsible for maintaining an accurate inventory of the smoke alarms allocated to their organization. If an organization is allocated 500 alarms, the total number of alarms listed on their install forms plus any remaining alarms (including malfunctioning alarms, if any) should total 500. If their installation records show that 483 alarms were installed by the end of the project period, and they have 5 bad alarms, they should also be returning 12 working alarms that were not installed. While an occasional lost alarm is understandable, major inventory problems may result in the loss of further funding, or even an official investigation.

For this reason, alarms should be tracked in a systematic way. The number of alarms given to individual installers or installation teams should be recorded, along with the number installed by each team and the number returned. If any malfunctioning alarms are found they should be returned to the state liaison, not thrown away. This project is funded with federal funds - tax-payer dollars - so it is important to be able to account for the materials bought with project funds.

Policy Issues

Several questions have been raised at various times about where to install alarms and how many to install. The following guidelines have been developed to help answer these questions. Similar information is also provided to installers during the installer training course.

Install alarms on every occupied level of a home.

If a house has two stories, a finished basement and an attic, you should install alarms on both levels of the house and in the basement. You should not normally install smoke alarms in attics, unfinished basements or other spaces that are not usually occupied. If an attic contains a bedroom or other regularly occupied space, however, a smoke alarm should be installed on that level.

If there are two or more separate bedroom areas on a single level, install a smoke alarm in each bedroom area.

Some homes have separate bedroom areas on the same floor. Ranch-style homes and many mobile homes, for example, often have the master bedroom at one end of the structure and two or more other bedrooms in a group at the other end of the structure. Such homes have two bedroom areas -- the master bedroom is in one area, and the other bedrooms are in a second area. Note that we are considering bedroom areas here, not the number of individual bedrooms. If two or more bedrooms are adjacent to one another and open onto a common hallway or entry way, they are part of the same bedroom area.

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When you have a home with two or more bedroom areas on the same floor, a smoke alarm should be installed in each bedroom area. If the area has a single bedroom, the alarm may be installed in the bedroom or directly outside the bedroom door. If there are two or more bedrooms in one area, the alarm should be installed in the common hallway or entry way outside the bedroom doors.

Some local organizations have expressed concern that if a fire starts in a bedroom, an alarm outside the bedroom door might not provide enough warning for anyone in the bedroom where the fire started to escape. They prefer to install a smoke alarm in every bedroom.

While it is possible that a fire starting in a bedroom with a closed door could become fatal to an occupant of the bedroom before a smoke alarm outside the door detected the fire and sounded an alarm, this possibility has to be weighed against current national standards and the need to serve as many households as possible. Current standards set by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) require only one alarm per bedroom area, not an alarm in every bedroom. Placing one alarm in every bedroom of a typical three-bedroom ranch-style home would increase the number of alarms used from two to three. That would reduce the total number of homes that could receive free smoke alarms. KIPRC does not prohibit the installation of alarms in every bedroom of homes served by the project, but cannot recommend the practice because (a) it is not part of the current NFPA standard and (b) it reduces the overall number of homes that can be protected.

Confidentiality is critical; installers should not reveal what they see inside homes unless legally required to do so.

Some people may be embarrassed to allow installers inside their home, for fear that the installers will think that the residence is dirty, cluttered or otherwise not ideal. Others may be afraid that the installers will enforce code violations, gossip with their friends and family about the condition of the residence, or even inform law enforcement officials of questionable activities taking place in the home.

In some cases installers may be required to notify law enforcement authorities if they believe that they have seen evidence of a crime. Indications of domestic violence, child abuse, elder abuse, or an evidence of serious danger to any person should be reported to the proper authorities as soon as possible. In other cases, however, installers should consider carefully before deciding whether to report evidence of minor crimes. While reporting possible crimes is normally a duty of any good citizen, an installer who observes evidence of a minor crime or code violation while installing an alarm and who then reports that information to law enforcement or code enforcement authorities may risk creating a situation where residents no longer trust installers and will not allow them into their homes. This may mean that homes where smoke alarms are badly needed will not be served, and endanger more people than a minor code violation.

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As with installing smoke alarms in bedrooms, having installers report minor code violations or criminal offenses is an issue that is left to the discretion of the individual installer and the local organization. This is not true about personal information, however. No installer should ever discuss the cleanliness, orderliness or other non-fire safety related characteristics of a home with others, or divulge any personal information about the residents that he or she may learn during the installation process. Most of this information is protected by federal privacy regulations, since the project is federally funded; improper discussion of such information may result in a loss of project funding for an organization that becomes aware of any such problem and does not resolve it. Revealing this type of information can also do great damage to the effectiveness of a program, since many people may refuse to enroll for installation if they think that details of their home life that are seen by installers may become the subject of community gossip.

Summary

Installing smoke alarms in homes is one of the most important parts of the project. It is important that all installations be done properly. Installers should complete an installer training course and follow the procedures listed in the Smoke Alarm Installation Guide when installing smoke alarms.

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Media Activities

One of the most important ways that you can spread the word about your project and about fire safety in general is through the use of the media. Newspapers, radio, local access cable television, broadcast television and other local media are great ways to reach the people in your community. By using public service announcements (PSAs) and news stories about your project you can encourage residents to sign up for free smoke alarms, inform them about where and how to sign up, and educate them about the need for smoke alarms and safe behavior in their homes.

One of the things expected from each local organization is that they have a working relationship with at least one local media outlet in their community. This can be a radio station, newspaper, cable company, or other media source. The media partner should be willing to carry occasional PSAs or ads for the project, as well as news stories (if they have a news department) about the project if any develop. At least one activity per month should be conducted. An activity may be the printing of a news story about the project, the broadcast of PSAs promoting fire safety for a few days, having someone from your organization appear on a local call-in radio or cable TV show to discuss smoke alarms and fire safety, or any other type of media coverage that promotes the project and fire safety in general in your community.

In addition to a regular media partner, you should work with as many local media sources as possible. For example, you may have a local radio station that broadcasts PSAs for you and promotes enrollment for your smoke alarm installation project. If you are planning a fire safety day at the local elementary school, you can work with the radio station to promote the program, but you may also want to talk to your local newspaper about having a reporter attend the event and write a news story about it.

If a life is saved by a smoke alarm in your community, you should notify all local media outlets. Even if the alarm wasn’t installed through the RFIP, a local smoke alarm success story will encourage more people to sign up for free smoke alarms. If the alarm was installed through the program, that is especially important. In that case, contact your state liaison as well as your local news media.

A good working relationship with the media can really help you to promote your program. Try to understand the needs of the media, and work with them. Also, always remember to say “thank you” for help from any partner, including the media. A nice letter that they can frame and hang in their offices, or a small plaque thanking them for their support, is appreciated by most media companies.

Public Service Announcements

Public service announcements, or PSAs, are advertisements or informational messages that are broadcast or printed free-of-charge by media organizations because they contain information of benefit to the community. Media companies give away air time or page space for PSAs as a community service; they are not required to do so. There are some things to keep in mind when asking your local media to help you.

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Don’t Ask Too Often

Remember, media companies have to earn money to stay in business, and they earn money by selling advertising space. While most of them are happy to donate space to advertise worthy causes, they have a limited amount of space available. Most of that space they have to sell in order to stay in business. That leaves only a small amount of air time or newspaper column space for free announcements, and there are a lot of charities and good causes asking for media support. Unless you have a media partner who has taken on your fire safety project as a major community service project, you should not expect large amounts of free publicity. If a radio station is willing to air a 30-second PSA a few times per week, or a weekly newspaper is willing to carry one printed PSA for your project every month, be grateful.

Know What You Want to Say

In media, even more than most businesses, time is money. If you don’t know what message you want to send, it’s hard for a media company to help you. Nothing frustrates a newspaper editor or radio station manager more than to offer free air time or ad space to someone who then says, “I don’t really know what I want to say… you know, just something about our project.” While most media companies have someone who will work with you to help you edit PSAs to fit their format, you should already have a written draft of what you want to say before you talk to them. That saves time for them, and makes working with you easier. If you make yourself easy to work with, you are more likely to get more air time or column space later.

Some examples of radio and newspaper PSAs are included in Appendix B: Media Materials. You can use them as they are, just by inserting the name of your organization, or you can use them as a source of ideas for your own PSAs. Whichever you choose, the important thing is to have a good idea of what you want to say before you ask someone from the media to help you say it.

Neatness Counts - Especially in Layout or Production

Once you know what you want to say, don’t scribble it onto a scrap of paper and head for the nearest radio station, cable company or newspaper. Take the time to type your PSA neatly. Even though it will probably be edited before it is recorded or printed, it is still important to present it in a neat format that is easy for the editor or producer to work with.

If you are working with a newspaper and have access to a computer with a good word processor or drawing program and a high-quality printer, consider producing your own camera-ready copy. “Camera-ready” means that the PSA is laid out exactly the way that you want it to appear in the newspaper, including being the same size that it will be when it is printed. Since newspapers have standard sizes for ads, you should contact the newspaper to see what sizes you should use for your PSAs. Some newspapers are just as happy with typed text, so it is always a good idea to check with the newspaper editor before investing the time needed to create camera-ready copy.

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To produce camera-ready copy you will need a computer printer (usually a laser printer) capable of printing at 300 dots per inch (DPI) or higher, with 600 DPI being even better. Use your word processing program or drawing program to create an ad that looks just like you want it to look in the newspaper. Check it carefully to be sure that all of the information is correct, and that all of the words are spelled correctly. You can then print a copy to take to the newspaper, or, in some cases, just take them a computer disc with the PSA saved on it. Since the newspaper’s editorial staff doesn’t have to set up the text and any artwork for your PSA if you deliver it in camera-ready form, they usually prefer to receive PSAs in that format.

Radio PSAs are recorded on tape or some other recording medium, such as a compact disc (CD). The process of reading the text for a PSA so that it can be recorded, and adding any sound effects or editing to the recorded message, is called production. In most cases, production for a PSA involves nothing more than an announcer reading the message and recording it, but the wording in the message has to be edited until the total time of the recorded message is the proper length (usually 30 seconds).

Since professional announcers are usually better than most people at adjusting their rate of speech to make the announcement the right length, and often have good speaking voices, most radio stations that have agreed to air PSAs for you will produce them for you from your text. They may ask if you want to do the reading, however, especially if it is a message from your organization. (Some PSAs, for example, start out with a greeting from the organization, such as “Hi, this is Chief Johnson of the West Southside Fire Department. Did you know that a smoke alarm can save your life? …”) Deciding in advance whether you want to do the reading or not can help save time for the production staff at the radio station.

If you are comfortable working with recording equipment, and have access to high quality equipment, you may want to do your own radio PSA production. Ask the radio station representative how long your “spots” (PSAs) should be, and what format (cassette tape, CD, digital audio tape, etc.) they should be recorded in. Record your message, make sure that it is the right length, and submit it to the station in the format they prefer. If you have several radio stations in your community, producing your own PSAs and delivering a copy to each station may help you get wider radio coverage. If you can’t record in the format that a station prefers, ask if another format is OK. Most radio stations can handle spots recorded on cassette tape.

News Coverage

In addition to asking local media outlets to handle PSAs for your project, you can also ask those that have news departments to cover important project activities, such as a community fire safety fair or a weekend smoke alarm enrollment project conducted with help from a local scout troop or youth group. This section includes some ideas and information that may help you get news coverage for your project.

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Not Everything is News

This is an important fact to remember. Just because it is beneficial to the community doesn’t mean that it is news. If it isn’t something new, unusual or important, a project activity may be listed in the Community Calendar section of your newspaper, or get a casual mention from a radio D.J., but it probably won’t get news coverage. Also, the fact that you believe that a school fire safety program is important doesn’t mean that a news editor will think that it’s important enough to send a reporter to cover it. Keep in mind that there are many people in your community who have stories to tell, and the media can only tell a few of them each day. If you want news coverage for your project activities, you will usually have to convince a news editor that they are important.

A good news editor usually asks himself or herself several questions before deciding whether to send a report cover an event, or whether to print or broadcast a story even after a reporter has submitted it. Those questions are:

Is this something new, or something that we’ve heard about before? Does it effect this community? If so, is the effect direct or indirect? How many people in the community does this effect? How seriously does it effect them? Is this a topic that people here care about? Does it involve someone that people know well, or want to know more about? Can we tell people something about this story that they don’t already know? How important is this event compared to the other things that happened today?

Once those questions have been answered, the editor can determine whether or not a story is news in your community. Understanding what the editor needs to see in a good story can help you get news coverage for your organization.

The more of these questions that you can answer in a way that makes the item newsworthy, the better. The first thing to remember is that fire safety is not new. It may not have been a high priority in your community, but that doesn’t mean that people haven’t heard about it before. To make a story about your project interesting to a news editor, you have to show how it is different from what’s been done before. You also need to show how fires have effected your community, and what your project can do to help. If you do an activity that involves important local leaders, or work on a problem that people are already interested in, you increase the chance that an editor will consider that activity to be news.

What’s News Today May Not Be News Tomorrow

Once something has been done, and reported on, it stops being news. Your first large smoke alarm enrollment event may be news; the tenth one won’t be unless something else happens along with it. Don’t repeat requests for news coverage for the same or very similar events. That will often just annoy the news editor.

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Also, schedule any major events that you will be doing carefully. Getting fifty volunteers together to do a door-to-door canvassing program in an area with a high percentage of elderly residents may be news on an average day, but it won’t be if your local high school basketball team just won the state championship. Sometimes things happen that can’t be predicted, but try to schedule events at times when they will not be competing with other community or national events for news coverage.

Tell the Media in Advance

If you are planning a major event, send out a media advisory. An example of how to write one is included in Appendix B: Media Materials. In general, the advisory should include the following information:

Who, and what organization, is releasing the advisory What will be happening Who will be involved in it Where it will be happening When it will be happening How it will be done (a few details of the event) Why it is being done (and why it’s important) Whether there will be a chance for reporters to do interviews, take photographs,

or do both Send out the media release at least seven days before your event; ten to fifteen days in advance is even better. Don’t send it out too early, however, since it may be forgotten. It is also a good idea to follow up with telephone calls to your local media a day or two before the event, to remind them about it and ask if they need any special accommodations, such as a reserved spot for a photographer or electrical power for a TV camera.

Use Press Releases

A press release is just a short story about an event that you write yourself, and then send to media organizations. Sometimes they will use the story just as you wrote it, but more often they will edit it and use it as the basis for their own story. A press release is especially useful when you want to announce something, such as the start of enrollment for smoke alarms, but there really isn’t an event going on.

Write your press releases carefully. Make sure that they are accurate, and that they contain all of the important information about the story. Make sure that your spelling and grammar is correct. You should have another person read each release before you send it to help you find any mistakes. An example showing how to write a press release is included in Appendix B: Media Materials.

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Working With the Media

Always be friendly to reporters. This might seem obvious, but some people don’t do it. Some organizations and individuals see reporters and the media as outsiders, or as critics who never say anything good, and avoid dealing with them. This isn’t a good idea. Even if you have a problem within your organization or your fire safety program, it is better to talk with the media than to say “no comment.” A reporter has a job to do, and that job is to write a news story. He or she will do that whether or not they talk to you. If you want to have your story heard, you will have to talk to the media.

Another thing to remember is that most reporters live in the community and want to have a positive influence on it. If you provide them with good news, they are usually willing to use it. Always be honest, and don’t try to avoid questions that you don’t like. Once they learn that you are honest and can provide them with good stories, you may find your local reporters calling you whenever they have a slow day and need a story idea. That can be a great way to promote your fire safety program.

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Community Education

One of the major goals of the state project is for each local project to educate at least 500 people in their community about fire safety. This number is for people who have been reached by community fire safety education activities. It does not include the residents who receive fire safety education when smoke alarms are installed in their homes. This may be difficult to accomplish in very small communities, and fairly easy to do in larger communities. The primary requirement is that each local project include an active community fire safety education program.

Community Fire Safety Education Activities

There are hundreds of ways to educate people about fire safety. One group ran a fire safety booth at their local mall for several days, and set up a fire safety education display at a popular local attraction. Members of the group manned these displays and answered questions about fire safety and smoke alarms. The group also signed up residents to receive smoke alarms and provided printed fire safety information to people who wanted it.

Several groups have worked with schools in their district to do fire safety education programs, and some have even managed to get their local schools to adopt the NFPA’s Learn Not to Burn™ or Risk Watch™ safety curriculums. Others have held fire safety fairs, done presentations to senior citizens’ groups, and found a variety of other ways to educate the public about fire safety. The types of educational activities that can be done are limited only by your imagination and the requirements listed below.

Fire safety education means more than just handing out brochures. In order to be considered a fire safety education activity, people must have the opportunity to see or hear about fire safety and to ask questions and receive additional information. There is nothing wrong with giving brochures or other printed information to participants, but just giving them a brochure is not enough to educate them about fire safety.

Targeting Your Fire Safety Education Activities

It is always a good idea to target your fire safety education activities to reach those who are most at risk from fires. Senior citizens and young children, in particular, have a very high risk of dying in residential fires. You should consider working with your local senior citizens’ center, pre-schools and other groups that serve these groups to do fire safety education. If you identify other high risk groups in your community, try to find a way to reach them with an educational program.

Improperly used space heaters are one of the most common sources of fatal household fires. You might be able to work with hardware stores and other dealers that sell space heaters to reach people who are buying them. These heaters come with warning information in the package, but many people don’t read that information. If you can persuade sales people at the stores to talk to their customers about the dangers of misusing space heaters, they are more likely to remember the warnings.

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Community groups and clubs, church groups and religious organizations, scout troops, schools and parents’ groups -- these are all groups who need to hear about fire safety. Many of these groups are looking for something new to do for their meetings. If you contact groups like these and offer to talk to their members about fire safety, you can often reach several hundred people with a few presentations.

You Don’t Have to Do It All Yourself

In most communities you can find another local organization or group that wants to help serve the community. Adult and high school service clubs, scout troops, college or university fraternities and sororities, and religious youth groups are all possible sources of help with fire safety education activities. The members of these groups may not be qualified to be the main speaker for a presentation, but they can help contact other groups and schedule presentations, set up and staff fire safety education booths, and help in many other ways.

You can also contact your state liaison or the state project coordinator for help with ideas for fire safety education activities. They won’t be able to do the activities for you, but they can help you plan and organize them.

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Records and Reports

There are several types of records that must be kept for this project. Most of them have already been described, but they are listed here again so that you can refer to this chapter if you have questions about record-keeping. Copies of the forms mentioned in this chapter can be found in Appendix C: Forms.

Project Reports

You will need to complete project reports for the following activities:

Telephone Surveys

You will be doing two telephone surveys for the project: one at the beginning of the project period, before you do smoke alarm installation and fire safety education, and another one at the end of the project, after you have finished installing alarms and doing educational programs. During each of these surveys you will need to contact at least 120 people who will answer the survey questions. Please read chapter 3, Telephone Surveys, carefully before you do the telephone surveys.

During the surveys you will be using the Telephone Survey Response forms to keep a record of the answers given by each person that you contact. Each person’s answers should be recorded on a separate form. Once you have completed each survey you should mail or deliver the completed forms for that survey to your state liaison. Remember to use some method of delivery confirmation if you mail the forms.

Smoke Alarm Installation

The primary form needed for signing up households for smoke alarm installation and recording the installation information is the Smoke Alarm Enrollment and Installation Record form. A single-page copy of this form can be found in Appendix C: Forms, but it is a sample only. The actual forms are three-part carbonless forms. Do not make single-page photocopies if you run out of three-part forms; request more forms from KIPRC through your state liaison or the state project coordinator. Since these forms are not always immediately available, you should plan ahead and request forms two or three weeks in advance.

A detailed explanation for using these forms is provided in chapter 4, Smoke Alarm Installation, and in the alarm installer training course. A person who is requesting free smoke alarms should complete the top portion of the form (above the dark dividing line) and sign it. When the alarms are installed, an installer should complete the bottom portion of the form and sign it. The back (pink) copy is left with the resident(s) of the home where the alarms were installed. The second (yellow) copy is for your local organization, and the original (white) copy must be returned to KIPRC by delivering or mailing it to your state liaison. Installation forms should be submitted at least once per month during the time when your organization is installing smoke alarms.

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Media Activities

Your project should include at least one media activity per month during the alarm installation and follow-up portions of the project. Information about media activities and working with the media can be found in chapter 5, Media Activities. You should list each of your media activities on the Media Activities Record form. A copy of this form can be found in Appendix C: Forms.

For each media event or activity, list the type of activity (such as PSA, news story, interview on a radio show, etc.), the date and time when it was conducted, the person who did the interview or arranged for the PSA or news story, the type of media (radio, TV, newspaper, or other) that carried the event and the name or call letters of the media outlet. If the activity is a PSA that aired at various times for several days or weeks, list the date for the first time it was aired as the date. Also include an estimated audience, which you can usually obtain from the broadcaster or newspaper, and any comments about the activity that you think are important.

A copy of the Media Activities Record for each month should be provided to your state liaison on a monthly basis, as part of your monthly report (see below).

Public Education

Public education activities should be recorded on the Public Education Activities Record, which is very similar to the Media Activities Record. Record the type of educational activity, the date and time when it was held, the personnel who conducted the activity, where or for what group it was held, and the number of people who were reached through that activity. Also include any comments that you feel are important, such as things that worked out particularly well, and those that didn’t work well.

Submit a copy of the Public Education Activities Record to your state liaison each month as part of your monthly report.

Monthly Reports

You should submit a short monthly report to your state liaison by the middle of each month, listing activities conducted by your project during the previous month. For example, the monthly report due on June 30 would include information about project activities for the month of May. The report is not long or complicated; it’s just a way for the state project staff to keep track of what each local project is doing.

Use the Monthly Report form to submit your monthly reports. Once you have finished the first telephone survey and have started to install smoke alarms and do media and educational activities, you should attach copies of the Media Activities Record and the Public Education Activities Record forms to the Monthly Report. Copies of all of these forms can be found in Appendix C: Forms.

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Problem Reports

A Problem Report should be submitted whenever a serious problem occurs with the project. This might be a serious complaint made by a resident who received (or who did not receive) smoke alarms, a smoke alarm that did not work during a fire, or any other problem that effects the local project in a serious way. Filing a project report is not going to mean a loss of funding or other penalty for your project, as long as reasonable efforts are made to correct the problem. The purpose of the Problem Report is to let the state project staff know that you might need help with a problem, and to help us learn from problems that occur so that we can help other programs avoid them in the future. This form can also be found in Appendix C: Forms.

Follow-Up Reports

About six months after you have installed smoke alarms in homes, your organization is expected to revisit about 200 of the homes in which you installed alarms. The purpose of these follow-up visits is to find out how many of the smoke alarms that you installed are still working after six months, whether the residents have had any problems with them, and whether the alarms have alerted them to any fires during that period.

During the follow-up process the personnel making the visits should complete a Follow-Up Inspection Record form for each household that receives a follow-up visit. The forms should be fully completed, and reviewed by a supervisor or the local project coordinator after they have been completed. Completed forms should be delivered or mailed to your state liaison when the follow-up process is completed. Delivery notification should be used if the forms are mailed.

A copy of the Follow-Up Inspection Record form can be found in Appendix C: Forms.

General Procedures for Reports

After completing report forms, please take a moment to review them to make sure that they are complete and accurate before you submit them. Review the survey and installation forms completed by personnel working on those parts of the project, as well as your media and educational activities records, to be sure that they are properly completed. If a signature is requested, please be sure that the form is signed; a printed name (unless it is the person’s legal signature) or a unit or badge number is not sufficient.

The best method for submitting reports is to deliver them to your state liaison. He or she will usually visit your organization at least once per month. If you have reports to submit you can contact your state liaison and request that they pick up the reports, and they will do so as soon as their schedule permits. You can also mail the report forms to your state liaison. If you do that, please use delivery confirmation or some other service that will allow the package to be tracked if it becomes lost.

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Please submit all reports on a timely basis. Some delays may be beyond your control, and this is understandable, but reports should be submitted on-time unless there is a good reason for the delay. The reports required by this project are not long or complicated, but they are important.

Inventory

As you read in chapter 4, Smoke Alarm Installation, it is important that you keep track of the smoke alarms issued to your organization, and be able to account for them. You are not required to use the Smoke Alarm Inventory form included in Appendix C: Forms, but it is available if you wish to use it. Whatever method you use, you should have some type of written inventory of the smoke alarms and materials provided to your organizations. You do not have to submit a copy of the inventory to KIPRC on a regular basis, but it may be examined by the project staff if a question is raised about the accuracy of the inventory.

Questions About Reporting and Record-Keeping

If you have a question about any report, or about record-keeping for the project in general, please contact your state liaison or the state project coordinator. They will try to answer the question or assist you in solving the problem. You can find their contact information in Appendix A: Project Staff.

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The Follow-Up Check

The final portion of the project involves returning to homes where smoke alarms were installed to find out whether the alarms are still working, whether residents have had any problems with them, and whether the alarms have warned the residents of any fires. This is an important part of the project. Installing smoke alarms doesn’t help very much if they break down, or the battery is removed by the resident. Finding out whether the alarms are still in use lets us know whether or not installing them is cost-effective.

People are more likely to disable smoke alarms if they have problems with them. If the alarm sounds for reasons other than a fire, such as steam from a bathroom shower or from cooking, the residents may be annoyed and disable the alarm. Checking on whether residents have had problems with the alarms will help us learn whether or not our installation procedures are working well.

Your organization will need to make follow-up visits to 200 homes, or 2/3 of the number of alarms you installed, whichever is less. For example, if your organization installed alarms in more than 300 homes, you will need to schedule follow-up visits for 200 households. If you installed alarms in 150 households, you will need to visit at least 100 of them.

Selecting the Sample

Not all homes in which smoke alarms were installed will receive a follow-up visit. To identify the homes that will be visited and prepare for the follow-up visits, follow these steps:

Step 1 - Select Homes for Follow-Up

Work with your state liaison to select the necessary homes at random from those you have installed alarms in. The process is similar to the one used to select a sample for the telephone survey, but the sample is selected from among your completed installations instead of from the entire community.

Step 2 - Fill Out Section 1 of the Follow-Up Inspection Record form

A Follow-Up Inspection Record form must be completed for each home that is to receive a follow-up visit. The resident’s name and telephone number, the address of the residence, the number of smoke alarms installed and the date of installation should be recorded in this section of the form. That information can be found on the Smoke Alarm Enrollment and Installation Record form for the residence.

Step 3 - Assign Follow-Up Inspections to Follow-Up Teams

Follow-up visits, like installations, are best done by teams of two or three people. You should assign the Follow-Up Inspection Record forms that you generated in Step 2 to the teams that will actually do the follow-up inspections, and record this information.

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Doing the Follow-Up Inspection Visits

Once the Follow-up Inspection Record forms have been assigned to a follow-up team, the team members are responsible for visiting the residence and conducting the follow-up inspection. If the team members are not familiar with the addresses of each of the homes that have been assigned to them, they should locate the address on a map. They can also find the residence by obtaining directions from a resident or from a member of the team who did the installation in that home.

Team members may or may not wish to call ahead before conducting a follow-up inspection visit. Calling the resident in advance will insure that they are home, and that they are expecting you. If they have disabled the smoke alarm, however, calling ahead may cause them to replace the battery in the alarm before the team arrives. Local organizations and follow-up teams should use their own judgment in deciding whether or not to call ahead before doing a follow-up visit.

Team members should take necessary supplies with them, including the Follow-up Inspection Record form for each home that they will visit, pens or pencils, a spare 9-volt battery to test alarms that fail the initial test, and a flashlight. Some local organizations may want to have their teams carry additional supplies. Spare 9-volt batteries to replace any that have been removed or that have failed are recommended.

Once the follow-up team has arrived at a resident and been allowed to enter the residence, they should follow the following steps to complete the follow-up inspection:

Step 1 - Verify the Location

The follow-up team should ask the residents to be sure that they have located the correct address. If the individual(s) living in the home are not the same as those who were living there at the time the smoke alarms were installed, record this information on the Follow-up Inspection Record form.

Step 1 - Inspect the Smoke Alarms

A member of the team should visually check and inspect each smoke alarm. If the number of alarms listed in Section 1 of the Follow-Up Inspection Record form does not match the number found in the home, discuss the situation with the residents. A mistake may have been made on the original installation record, or when the information was copied to the Follow-Up Inspection Record form. A resident may have also removed one or more smoke alarms.

A team member should check each alarm according to the procedure listed in the Smoke Alarm Inspection Guide (see Appendix C: Forms). The condition of each alarm should be recorded on the Follow-up Inspection Record form. If there are any problems with an alarm, this information should be recorded and explained on the form.

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If the team finds a problem while checking the alarms they should fix it if it is practical to do so. It may not be possible to fix some problems. If there is a problem with an alarm, the appropriate box(es) at the top of the form should be checked.

Step 3 - Interview the Resident(s)

Once the alarms have been checked, the team must ask the questions listed on the Follow-up Inspection Record form. The answers given by the residents should be recorded on the form. Just like with the telephone survey, team members should ask additional questions if they aren’t sure what a resident means, or if they do not get a clear answer. If a resident refuses to answer a particular question, the team should mark that questions as ‘Refused’ and continue with the next question on the list.

Returning the Forms

Once a follow-up team has finished an inspection trip they should return any forms that were completed during that trip to the local agency coordinator. Once you --the local coordinator -- receive the forms, you should then deliver or mail them to your state project liaison. If you choose to mail the forms, remember to use a postage option that allows you to verify delivery of the package. It is acceptable to hold the forms until your organization has completed the follow-up inspection and then submit them all at one time, or submit them in smaller packets, unless you are informed otherwise by your state liaison or the state project coordinator.

Once the forms have been received by the state project staff and checked for completeness, your organization’s requirements for your local project will be complete. A check for the amount agreed to for data collection will be mailed to you from KIPRC as soon as possible after the project has been completed. If you have questions at any time during the project or follow-up periods, contact your state liaison or the state project coordinator.

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Summary

This book is intended to be a guide that you can use to help you perform the duties of a local project coordinator for the Residential Fire Injury Prevention (RFIP) project. Your organization has agreed to participate in the project. We want it to be a successful one -- for you, for your organization and for your community. This guide was written with that goal in mind.

In this guide you have information about the overall goals of the project, the various activities that need to be performed and why those activities are important. You also have guidelines and checklists to help you perform those activities properly. No book can answer all questions, however, or anticipate every problem. Maintain close contact with your state liaison and ask for assistance if you need it. The state project staff is available to help you develop an effective local project.

In addition the information listed in this book, there are many other sources of information about the project and about fire safety in general. You should read and be familiar with the Smoke Alarm Installation Manual and the other guides and forms used by the project. You should also read Appendix E: Other Useful Information, and take advantage of some of the materials that area available from organizations like the United States Fire Administration (USFA), the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), and other sources.

The local coordinator has one of the most important roles in the project. It is up to you to keep your local project on track, to insure that installers are trained, households enrolled in the project, alarms installed, media messages produced, and records kept. It is a big job, and not necessarily an easy one. It has one great benefit, however -- if you do the job well, you can make a tremendous difference to the status and community image of your organization, and to the safety of people in your community. Good luck!

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Appendix A: Project Staff

The staff members for the Residential Fire Injury Prevention (RFIP) project are listed below. If you have difficulty reaching any staff member directly, you can call the KIPRC central office at (859) 257-4954.

Robert H. McCool, MS Phone: (859) 257-6741Project Manager and Principal Investigator Fax: (859) 257-3909Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center E-mail: rmccool@uky.eduUniversity of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center 333 Waller Avenue, Suite 202 Lexington, KY 40504-2915

Tom Haynes, RN Phone: (606) 439-3557 State Project Coordinator Fax: (606) 436-8833 Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center E-mail: thayn2@uky.edu Southeastern Regional Office 100 Airport Gardens Road - C.R.H. Hazard, KY 41701

Ron Clatos, MA Phone: (606) 783-5396 Asst. State Project Coordinator Fax: None Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center E-mail: Northeastern Regional Office r.clatos@morehead-st.edu 7280 Oak Grove Road Morehead, KY 40351

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Appendix B: Media Materials

As you read in chapter 5, Media Activities, working with the media is one of the most important parts of the project. This section contains examples of public service announcements (PSAs), newspaper advertisements, press releases and media advisories that you can use for your local project. It also includes some examples of news stories and other media publications from prior projects. Some of the material in this section has been adapted from the D.A.R.E. Media Procedures Manual.

General Guidelines and Media Contacts

To help ensure the best possible media coverage for your local project, it is very important that you understand how to work with the media, who to contact and what to say. The media coverage you obtain may include a background story on fire safety and smoke alarms, a profile of one of the people in your agency who is working on the project, a story about a smoke alarm “save,” or perhaps a fire safety event at a local school. Whatever the case, if you are knowledgeable about your subject and familiar with your local media sources, chances are you'll obtain better coverage for your project.

To establish media contacts in your community, read the local newspapers, watch local television news, listen to the radio and become acquainted with the type of stories each covers, and who reports on what subjects.

Media Outlets

Following is a brief overview of the most frequently targeted media outlets, along with their formats, and person to contact when suggesting a story idea.

Television News Format: brief, visualContact: assignment editors in larger markets news director in smaller markets

Television Talk Shows Format: chatty, less formal, visual interview or discussionContact: segment producer, guest booker

Radio News Format: brief interviews on event or news development Contact: assignment editors in larger markets; news director in smaller markets

Radio Talk Shows Format: chatty, issues oriented; opportunity for discussion and call-ins Contact: producer of the show

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Newspaper -- Main News Section Coverage: national, state, local stories Contact: national/state/city editor managing editor at smaller papers

Newspaper -- Metro Section (generally only found in larger papers) Coverage: city/regional events, news stories Contact: metro editor

Newspaper -- Feature Sections (Lifestyle, Travel, Food, etc.) Coverage: Human interest stories Contact: Education/feature/lifestyle editor, beat reporter (public safety, etc.)

Newspaper -- Business Section Coverage: Business-related news and features Contact: Business editor, or specific reporter

Newspaper -- Special Editors Editorial Pages Editor (Letters to the editor, Op-ed columns) Weekend/Sunday Editor Photo EditorSpecial Sections Editor

Copy/Talking Points

Before calling a reporter, you should always have on hand three main points about the story you are trying to sell, as well as specific facts about the RFIP project in your community, and about the project statewide.

Following are some copy/talking points about the project that may assist you:

Residential fires are the eighth leading cause of injury-related death in Kentucky, and were the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 4 from 1990 through 1997. (Data from more recent years are not yet available.)

Smoke alarms are extremely effective in preventing deaths due to residential fires.

Lithium battery powered smoke alarms have batteries that can last up to ten years before they need to be replaced.

Many homes need more than one smoke alarm to be safe. At a minimum, there should be one smoke alarm on every occupied floor of a home.

Smoke alarms are inexpensive, but some people have trouble affording them. The Residential Fire Injury Prevention (RFIP) project makes free smoke alarms available to people who need them on a first come, first served basis.

The project is funded by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), through a grant to the Kentucky Department for Public Health.

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The Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center (KIPRC) manages the grant for the health department, and a committee of public health and public safety officials select the local organizations that will be funded each year.

The current RFIP project began in October of 2001, and will continue until September of 2006. Approximately 5,000 lithium battery powered smoke alarms are expected to be installed in Kentucky homes each year during that project.

Local agencies such as <insert the name of your organization here> are working as partners with KIPRC to bring the project to communities around Kentucky.

Our community will receive approximately <insert the number of smoke alarms that your organization will receive here> as part of the project. These alarms will be installed without charge in homes in our community.

The Whole Truth And Nothing But .... and other rules for talking to reporters

Tell the Truth. It's often tempting to stretch, shade, or sidestep the truth. Resist that impulse. You're a good source only as long as you're accurate and reliable. If you don't know how to answer a question, say so. Then find out and phone back with the facts.

Be Accessible. Reporters have deadlines, so return their calls promptly. Offer your direct line and home phone number. Get theirs. If you can't talk when a reporter calls, find out what the deadline is and arrange an alternate time to talk.

Learn the Rules. Make sure you understand phrases like "not for attribution" (your name is not used, but your quote may be). As for "off the record," unless you know and fully trust a reporter, avoid it. If you don't want something reported, don't mention it. Never insist on speaking to a reporter who is "on deadline" unless you have something to say that dramatically changes the story.

Be Prepared. The press has an agenda. Be sure yours is equally well defined. Before you talk to a reporter, review your files. Jot down one or two points you want to make -- then practice stating them in brief, clear sentences. Try doing a sample interview with someone you trust -- have a friend or co-worker sit in on an interview and offer feedback afterwards.

Don't assume reporters know you or your issue. Even if you live in a small community, and were on page one yesterday, there's no guarantee a reporter will remember you next week. Never count on reporters to know the spelling of your name, your history, your organization, or your point of view -- even if they cover your field regularly. Always state clearly who you are and what you represent.

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Don't give up. If you're looking forward to press coverage and your story doesn't appear in the local newspaper, don't despair. Reporters get dozens of press releases a week, and interview dozens of people for stories. Yours may be pulled in favor of a story on the latest political scandal. Don't give up, just try again.

News Releases

The news release is a valuable tool if you have newsworthy information to report to the media about your local RFIP project, your organization, an upcoming event, or a personnel appointment. The subject of the release must, however, be of interest to an editor and his audience. Issuing a news release without news value will only damage the credibility of the writer and the organization.

To be newsworthy, and of potential interest to an editor, a news release must be written clearly and concisely using conventional newspaper style. The who, what, where, when, why and how facts should usually be addressed in the first paragraph.

Faced with paper shortages, spiraling production costs, shrinking news holes and intense deadline pressures, editors simply don't have time to wade through masses of poorly written, self-serving news releases. Remember, the news editor’s job is to report the news, not to publicize your program. If you submit a news release, it should contain information about a project or event that will interest people.

The six top complaints by editors about news releases are:

1. Information isn't specific to the local community

2. There is no valuable news information being communicated

3. The release contains too much advertising puffery

4. The release is too long and cumbersome

5. The release arrived too late to be useful

6. The release was poorly written

Following is a standardized news release format, along with a sample news release you can use when preparing your own news releases.

For further information on newspaper style, you may want to purchase "The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual," available at most bookstores.

News Release Format

The format on the following page should be used when writing a news release. If you need help in creating a news release, contact your state liaison or the state project coordinator for assistance.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: (YOUR NAME) (DAYTIME PHONE NO.)

(HEADLINE)

CITY, STATE (date) -- (1st PARAGRAPH -- MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION)

(2nd AND SUBSEQUENT PARAGRAPHS -- SUPPORT INFORMATION IN DESCENDING ORDER OF IMPORTANCE)

REMINDER: DOUBLE SPACE COPY

(TO CONTINUE ON NEXT PAGE, CENTER "-more-" AT BOTTOM OF PAGE

-more-

(NEWS RELEASE TITLE) (PAGE NUMBER, REPEATED WITH DASHES BETWEEN)

(LAST PARAGRAPH -- "BOILER PLATE": HISTORY/BACKGROUND OF THE ORGANIZATION)

(TO SHOW IT'S THE END OF A RELEASE, CENTER "# # # #" ON THE LAST LINE)

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: ___________________________________Tom Haynes - (606) 439-3557, ext. 273Robert McCool - (859) 257-6741

________________ FIRE DEPARTMENT RECEIVES GRANT TO INSTALL SMOKE ALARMS

The _______________________ Fire Department has received a grant to install smoke alarms in area

homes that do not have working smoke alarms. The grant, which is overseen by the Kentucky

Department for Public Health and the Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center at the University

of Kentucky, is funded by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition to

receiving ____ smoke alarms, the fire department will receive fire safety educational materials and

funding to help cover the expense of installing the alarms.

According to Robert McCool, program manager for the Injury Prevention Center, the grant process isn’t

simple. “Fire departments have to apply for the project,” said McCool, “and show us why they need the

project in their community. Once a fire department is selected for the project, they have to collect

information about the use of smoke alarms in their community, install smoke alarms in homes that don’t

have them, do fire safety education programs and then collect more information about how well the

project worked. It’s not a simple process, and it’s a quite a bit of work for the firefighters. They’re doing

it for their communities, though, and they’re pretty motivated.”

_________________________, <title> for the fire department, sees the grant as a good opportunity for

the fire department. “It helps us help the community,” __________________ said. “Any time we can

prevent fires and save lives, we want to do it.”

Tom Haynes, the state project coordinator, stated that the smoke alarms furnished for this project have

lithium batteries designed to last about ten years. Haynes said, “You don’t need to change the lithium

batteries twice a year the way you would regular batteries.” Haynes says that this makes the smoke

alarms especially good for residents who may have trouble changing the batteries in their smoke alarms.

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________________ FIRE DEPARTMENT RECEIVES GRANT TO INSTALL SMOKE ALARMS

2-2-2-2

Haynes also pointed out that people who already have smoke alarms with regularly batteries should

remember to change the batteries in the alarms. He recommends that they be changed twice each year,

whenever the time changes. Haynes said, “If you have smoke alarms that use regular batteries, change

the batteries in your smoke alarms whenever you set your clock ahead an hour in the spring, and again

when you set it back an hour in the fall. That way you should always have good batteries in your smoke

alarms.”

The fire department is already taking applications for smoke alarms. Once a person has signed up for a

smoke alarm, firefighters will come to their home an install one or more smoke alarms in the house.

McCool says that having the alarms installed by firefighters is a major part of the project. “The

firefighters have to install the alarms. We don’t let them just give alarms to people, because they forget to

put them up, and they won’t do any good unless they’re installed. When the firefighters put them up we

know that they’re in place and working.”

<title> <name> at the fire department said that the firefighters are ready to do the job.

“We worked hard to get this grant, and we’re going to keep on working to help protect the people in this

community.”

Anyone who lives in the area served by the fire department can call ___________________ for more

information, or sign up for a smoke alarm at ________________________________. The alarms are

available on a first-come, first-served basis. Area residents and organizations can also call the fire

department to get information about fire safety or to schedule a fire safety presentation for their group.

# # #

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Query Letters

The query letter, or pitch letter, is used to interest an editor or reporter in a possible story, interview or event. The best query letters are direct and to the point, while at the same time, catchy and interesting. The letter should hit the reader between the eyes with a grabber lead. Anecdotes, statistics, recent headlines or news stories can all be used to catch the reader's attention.

Similar to a news release, the query letter should be short and clearly written. Whenever possible, length should be held to one page, and never longer than two pages. The spelling of names, especially the editor's, must be perfect. Facts and statements in the letter should be carefully checked for accuracy.

Query Letter Format

The following page includes an example of the standardized query letter format. There is also a sample letter that you can use as a model to help you when you are preparing your own query letters.

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(Example of a Query Letter)

(DATE)

(NAME)(TITLE)(PUBLICATION)

(ADDRESS)

DEAR MR./MS.

(1st PARAGRAPH: NEEDS TO GRAB EDITOR

-- USE STATISTICS/CURRENT EVENTS/ANECDOTES

RELATIVE TO YOUR IDEA

-- EXPLAIN THE RELEVANCE OF YOUR PROJECT,

EVENT OR STORY TO HIS/HER AUDIENCE)

(2nd PARAGRAPH:SUPPORTING POINTS; WHAT ELSE IS IMPORTANT

OR INTERESTING ABOUT THE

PROGRAM/EVENT/STORY)

(3rd PARAGRAPH: PROVIDE HISTORY OF D.A.R.E. IN YOUR

CITY/STATE)

(4th PARAGRAPH: "CALL TO ACTION" -- EXPLAIN WHAT YOU WANT

EDITOR TO DO)

(5th PARAGRAPH: INDICATE MATERIALS YOU ARE SENDING, AND

PLANS TO FOLLOW-UP)

Sincerely,

(Your name)

(title)

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ANYTOWN VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT

October 2, 2002

Mr. Ron Randall Editor Anytown Daily News 421 North Main Street Anytown, KY 40478

Dear Mr. Randall:

Last year three people died in a house fire in our community. Two of them were young children. The home where the fire occurred did not have smoke alarms. The children had not had a fire safety class, and did not know how to escape from a burning building.

In addition to that fatal fire, our department responded to sixteen residential fires last year. In spite of our best efforts, several families lost their homes. A number of people were also taken to the hospital due to smoke inhalation after fires occurred in their homes.

People don’t have to die in household fires, and families don’t have to be homeless because their home burned to the ground. Most household fires can be prevented. If people practice basic fire safety rules they can avoid the most common causes of household fires.

Even when fires do occur, smoke alarms can prevent death and injury. Having a working smoke alarm on each level of a home, and having a good fire escape plan, can save lives when a fire occurs. The Anytown Volunteer Fire Department has received a grant to install smoke alarms in homes in our community that don’t have them, so no one has a reason to not have smoke alarms.

We are also working to educate children about the dangers of fire, how to prevent fires in their home, and how to escape from their home if a fire does occur. Members of our department, along with county Judge/Executive Norman Storman and our mascot Sparky the Fire Dog, will be at the Community Elementary School on October 11 to teach hundreds of children how to survive a house fire.

I believe that coverage of this event would interest your readers, and also provide them with valuable information that could save their lives in the event of a fire. I will contact you shortly to discuss this story opportunity. In the meantime, please feel fee to call me at (606) 123-4567 if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Chief Joe Johnson

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Media Advisories

A media advisory is a brief fact sheet used to alert and invite media to your special event or press conference. It outlines what your event/conference is about, why it is important, who will be attending, when and where it will be held, and the various photo opportunities available.

Generally, a media advisory is sent out a few days prior to an event or conference. It may be issued to media in lieu of a news release, or used complement it. There is a standardized media advisory letter format shown on the following page, along with an example to help you when preparing your own media advisories.

Media Advisory Format

Use the sample media advisory format shown below when preparing a media advisory. Remember that you can always request assistance from your state liaison or the state project coordinator if you need help to prepare media materials.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: (YOUR NAME) (DAYTIME PHONE #)

WHAT: (BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF EVENT AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT)

WHO: (NAMES OF SPECIAL GUESTS IN ATTENDANCE, SPEAKERS AND/OR EVENT SPONSORS AND A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THEIR QUALIFICATIONS)

WHEN: (DATE AND TIME OF THE EVENT)

WHERE: (LOCATION OF THE EVENT)

PHOTOOPPORTUNITIES: (ALL VISUALS, INCLUDING PEOPLE, PROPS)

# # # #

MEDIA ADVISORY MEDIA ADVISORY MEDIA ADVISORY

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Chief Joe Johnson(606) 123-4567

WHAT: Fire Safety Day at Community Elementary School

Classes and activities to help kids learn how to survive a residential fire and how to help prevent fires in their home. Activities will include fire safety quizzes, a Stop, Drop and Roll demonstration and learning how to escape from a burning house. A fire safety house will be in use.

WHO: 540 elementary school students plus teachers and school staff Anytown Volunteer Fire Department firefighters with apparatus Judge/Executive Norman Storman Fire Chief Joe Johnson Sparky the Fire Dog

WHEN: Friday, October 11 9:00 AM until 2:00 PM

WHERE: Community Elementary School 304 Red Oak Drive

PHOTOOPPORTUNITIES: Children performing fire safety drills

Firefighters in uniform with apparatus and equipment Judge Storman and Chief Johnson with Sparky the Fire Dog

# # # #

MEDIA ADVISORY MEDIA ADVISORY MEDIA ADVISORY

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Photo News Releases

A photograph may sometimes tell your story better than the written word or help enhance a news release. An editor also may ask you for follow-up information on an event or announcement and request a photo from you. In these instances, you should find a professional photographer to document your event or story, then issue a photo news release.

Many editors prefer black and white photography, but you should always ask in advance. When captioning your photo, be sure to explain exactly what's going on in the photo and have all individuals in the photograph properly identified.

Another tactic in trying to get your story covered is to submit a photo or roll of film to your local Kentucky Network, Associated Press or United Press International wire services. If they use your photo, it may be picked up by other newspapers and media in your local community or perhaps even nationally.

Following is a suggested format when sending out a photo release.

PHOTO CAPTION:

CITY, STATE (date) -- (1st PARAGRAPH -- MOST IMPORTANT AND/OR INTERESTING INFORMATION)

(2nd PARAGRAPH -- SUPPORT INFORMATION IN DESCENDING ORDER OF IMPORTANCE)

CONTACT: (YOUR NAME) (TELEPHONE NUMBER)

PHOTO HERE

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PHOTO CAPTION:

Anytown, Kentucky (October 11) -- Students at the Community Elementary School learn to escape from a burning house during the Fire Safety Day sponsored by the school and the Anytown Volunteer Fire Department.

The fire department has been working hard to promote fire safety in the community. In addition to holding educational events like the Fire Safety Day, the department is installing free smoke alarms in the homes of community residents who do not have smoke alarms.

CONTACT: Captain Tom Thompson (606) 123-4567

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Press Conferences

Press conferences are generally limited to major news announcements, often in conjunction with an annual meeting or VIP appearance, such as the head of your organization and mayor or judge/executive announcing your new fire safety program. Before planning a press conference, ask yourself: Can this information be disseminated just as easily and timely in a news release? If you answer yes, a press conference should usually not be held.

Press Conference Guidelines

Follow these guidelines when holding a press conference.

1. Don't play favorites -- invite representatives from all major news outlets - -and be honest, candid and fair. Invite all major, media in your city, including wire services (e.g. Associated Press, United Press International.) Provide everyone with the same accurate information and equal opportunity to interview the speaker during the press conference.

2. Notify media by mail well in advance of the conference, or by fax if time is a factor, and follow up by phone. A media advisory announcing the event should list the subject, date, time and place for the conference, as well as the speaker and the person/phone number to contact for further information. (Please see page 20 for a sample media advisory.) The day before the event, make follow-up phone calls.

3. Schedule the conference early in the day. The earlier in the business day the better, particularly for TV coverage, but not before 9 a.m. The optimum time is between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.

4. Hold the conference in a meeting room, not someone's office. Auditoriums and hotel meeting rooms are good places for news conferences. Chairs should be set up for all reporters, and space should be made for TV cameras and cables. The speaker at the conference should speak either from a table or a podium, so that microphones and tape recorders can be placed nearby.

5. The time allotted for the press conference should be stated in advance. Reporters should be told at the beginning of the press conference how much time has been allocated for the presentation and follow-up questions. This way, no one can complain later.

6. Keep the speaker away from reporters before the press conference begins to ensure that news information is not leaked in advance. If one or two media organizations get the news before others do, you will destroy the credibility of your press conference.

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7. Prepare press materials to complement and support the speaker's presentation. A press kit should be prepared and made available to all reporters covering the press conference. The press kit should include information about the speaker, the subjects discussed, and the local and state Residential Fire Injury Prevention (RFIP) projects. General background information about fire safety may also be included.

8. Let the reporters know the end has come. Just before the stated time has elapsed, the speaker should announce to reporters that the next question will be the last one. After the final question, the speaker should thank the reporters for coming and step away from the podium/table. After the press conference has ended, some reporters (particularly broadcast journalists) may want to ask follow-up questions on an individual basis. Do so only if all reporters have an opportunity to conduct one-on-one interviews.

Press Conference Checklist

Use this checklist to help you organize a successful press conference. Included are set-up logistics as well as related material requirements. 1. Send invitations to selected individuals 2. Write and send media advisory 3. Make follow-up media calls 4. Prepare press materials or kits for distribution at conference 5. Set-up podium or table 6. Check microphone (sound) 7. Arrange adequate lighting for room and for the podium or table 8. Arrange seating for speakers 9. Place name cards at appropriate seats 10. Arrange to have water pitcher/glasses for speakers 11. Display your organization’s logo on and behind the podium or table 12. Set-up chairs for reporters, maintaining wide aisles 13. Arrange electrical outlets for T.V. cameras and/or radio equipment 14. Arrange for photographer to document event 15. Arrange for conference to be videotaped 16. Order refreshments 17. Make extra pencils/pads of paper available 18. Arrange for post-conference, one-on-one interviews

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Public Service Announcements

Public service announcements, or PSAs, are basically advertisements that are printed or broadcast free of charge by a media organization. They are different from news stories, and serve a different purpose. Like news stories, however, PSAs can be very useful in promoting your project.

Some media organizations will not print or broadcast PSAs, but quite a few will. Local radio stations seem to be particularly good about airing PSAs. As you read in chapter 5, Media Activities, some radio stations or newspapers that are willing to run PSAs for you may expect you to produce the original tape or ad layout for them. Others are willing to work with you to produce the PSA, but they will generally expect you to know what you want the PSA to say and how you want it to look or sound. The examples in this section can help you write effective PSAs for your local project.

Radio PSA Examples

TITLE: SMOKE ALARMS ARE LIFE SAVERS TIME: 30 SECONDS

MOST FATAL FIRES HAPPEN AT NIGHT WHEN YOU AND YOUR FAMILY ARE

ASLEEP - WHEN SECONDS CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIFE AND

DEATH.

ARE YOU PROTECTED?

IF YOU HAVE ONE OR MORE WORKING SMOKE ALARMS IN YOUR HOME,

YOU DOUBLE YOUR CHANCES OF SURVIVING A FIRE!

THAT’S PROTECTION!

AND SMOKE DETECTORS ARE INEXPENSIVE AND EASY TO INSTALL.

SMOKE ALARMS ARE REAL LIFE SAVERS.

IF YOU ARE A RESIDENT OF <NAME OF YOUR COMMUNITY> AND DON’T

HAVE A WORKING SMOKE ALARM IN YOUR HOME CALL <PHONE NUMBER>

TO SIGN UP TO HAVE A FREE SMOKE ALARM INSTALLED IN YOUR HOME.

THIS MESSAGE FROM <NAME OF YOUR ORGANIZATION> AND THE

KENTUCKY INJURY PREVENTION AND RESEARCH CENTER.

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TITLE: STOP, DROP AND ROLL TIME: 30 SECONDS

THE <NAME OF YOUR ORGANIZATION> WANTS YOU TO KNOW THREE

SIMPLE WORDS THAT CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE - STOP, DROP, AND ROLL.

EVEN IF YOU’RE ALWAYS CAREFUL, SOME DAY YOUR CLOTHING MIGHT CATCH

ON FIRE.

WHEN CLOTHING BURNS THERE SEEMS TO BE A NORMAL REACTION TO

RUN - TO RUN AWAY FROM THE FIRE OR TOWARD WATER OR OUTSIDE. BUT

DON’T DO IT.

STOP RIGHT AWAY, RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE.

DROP IMMEDIATELY TO THE GROUND.

ROLL BACK AND FORTH TO SMOTHER THE FIRE AGAINST THE GROUND OR

FLOOR.

THESE ACTIONS WILL STOP THE FIRE AS FAST AS POSSIBLE, PREVENT THE

FIRE FROM GETTING WORSE, AND HELP CONTROL THE SEVERITY OF THE BURNS.

DO IT RIGHT. STOP, DROP, AND ROLL.

THIS MESSAGE FROM <NAME OF YOUR ORGANIZATION> AND THE

KENTUCKY INJURY PREVENTION AND RESEARCH CENTER.

Newspaper PSA Examples

Samples of newspaper advertisements that may be carried as PSAs by a newspaper in your area are shown on the following page. If you need camera-ready copy that includes the name and contact information of your organization, you can contact your state liaison or the state project coordinator for assistance.

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If you don’t have a smoke alarm in your home you should be alarmed. To have a free smoke alarm installed in your home, call _____________________ at ____________________.

Smoke alarms can save your life. If you don’t have smoke alarms in your home, call us at _______________.

We will install smoke alarms in your home at no charge.

Name of Your Organization

FIRE SAFETY CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE

The <name of your organization> reminds you that practicing fire safety can save your life. - Don’t leave the kitchen when food is cooking- Be careful with candles, and never leave them burning when you leave home or go to sleep- Don’t use space heaters as your primary source of heat, and keep them at least three feet away from furniture, curtains and other flammable materials- Put matches and lighters in a safe place and never let children play with fire- If you use wood heat, have your chimney cleaned and inspected regularly

SMOKE ALARMS CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE, BUT THEY DON’T WORK WITHOUT BATTERIES.

Remember to change the battery iN your smoke alarm when you change the time on your clocks in the spring and fall.

CHANGE YOUR 69

Community Calendars

Many newspapers, radio stations, cable television systems and broadcast television stations announce upcoming events in their communities in a special column or program. These columns or programs are often called “Community Calendar,” “Upcoming Events,” or something similar. Listing an event in these columns or programs is generally free, and there is usually information at the end of the newspaper column or broadcast that includes instructions for how to submit an item for the calendar.

When your organization is conducting public fire safety education activities it is often helpful to submit this information to your local media for their community calendar listings. Some of these calendars will also carry small news items of community interest, such as regular reminders about how to sign up for free smoke alarms. These types of programs are often very good ways to provide information about your program to the public.

Examples of Newspaper Publicity

The newspaper clipping shown below is an example of the type of publicity that can be obtained for a local program. In this case, a family that received a smoke alarm wrote a letter to the editor of a local newspaper when the smoke alarm saved their home.

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Appendix C: Forms

The forms in this section are those that you will need for the Residential Fire Injury Prevention (RFIP) project. If additional forms are required at any point, they will be provided by the state project staff. You can copy any of the forms in this section except the Smoke Alarm Enrollment and Installation Record form. A copy of that form is included as a sample, but it should not be copied because the actual form is a three-part form. You can obtain additional copies of that form from the state project staff.

The forms included in this section are:

Smoke Alarm Enrollment and Installation Record (sample only)

Receipt for Smoke Alarms

Smoke Alarm Inventory Log

Media Activities Report

Public Education Activities Report

Monthly Report

Residential Fire Incident Report

Telephone Survey Record

Smoke Alarm Inspection Guide

Follow-up Inspection Record

If you have questions about the proper use of any of these forms, please contact your state liaison or the state project coordinator.

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Name ______________________________________________________________________

Street / Road Address _______________________________________ Apt./Unit # ________

City ________________________________ State KY ZIP Code ___________

Telephone Number _____________________________ County ______________________

Enrollment Agency ____________________ Enrolled on _____________ by _____________

To help us estimate the number of smoke alarms your home will need, please answer these questions:

What type of home do you live in? [ ] House [ ] Mobile Home [ ] Apartment

How many floors (including basement, if you have one) does your home have? ____________

Please indicate the day(s) of the week and time period(s) you are usually home. (We need to have this information in order to know when to have the installers stop by to install your smoke alarms.)

Times / Days MON TUE WED THUR FRI SAT SUN8 AM - NoonNoon - 4 PM4 PM - 8 PM

By signing this document, I agree that I have requested that one or more smoke alarms be installed in my residence; that I will allow the installers selected by the project to enter my residence for the purpose of installing those alarms and providing fire safety information and education to those present in the residence; and that I, my heirs and legal agents do hereby release all agencies, organizations, institutions or individuals who are now or who may become associated with this project from any and all liability for damages, injury or casualty of any sort whatsoever involving my residence, my property, myself or any other person, which results or may result from activities conducted for this project.

_____________________________________ ____________(signature of adult resident requesting smoke alarms) (date)

Assigned to ______________________________________ on _________________.(installation agency) (date)

Assigned to ______________________________ for installation.

(person responsible for installing alarms)

# of residents ______ # over 65 ______ # 12 or younger ______ Race/Ethnicity _______

Has this household ever had a fire? [ ] yes [ ] no (If “yes”, when? _________________)

By signing below I acknowledge that I installed _______ smoke alarms in the residence described above, and provided those persons present at the time of the installation with fire safety education, at:

___________ AM PM on _____________ (time) (date)

Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research CenterResidential Smoke Alarm Mini-Grant Project

Smoke Alarm Enrollment and Installation Record

USE BALLPOINT PEN - PRESS FIRMLY WHEN WRITING

SAMPLE ONLY

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_______________________________________________(signature of lead installer)

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RECEIPT FOR SMOKE ALARMS

By signing below, I acknowledge that I have received the indicated number of lithium battery

powered smoke alarms from the Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center (KIPRC) on

the date shown. I acknowledge that these alarms will be installed in accordance with my

organization’s agreement with KIPRC.

Number of Alarms: Boxes: _____________________________

Recipient: Recipient (Sign): _____________________

Recipient Title: Date: _______________________________

KIPRC Rep.: KIPRC Rep. (Sign): ___________________

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Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research CenterResidential Fire Injury Prevention Project

Smoke Alarm Inventory Log

Local Organization Name _________________________________ Date Submitted ______________

Person Person Number of Date Installed /Releasing Alarms Receiving Alarms Alarms Received Alarms Received Returned Alarms

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

In the Installed / Returned Alarms column, please indicate the number of alarms installed from this issue, and the number returned unused and/or bad. For example, suppose that 20 alarms are issued. Seventeen of them are installed, two are returned unused and one is returned as bad. The entry would be: 17 / 3 (1 bad)

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Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research CenterResidential Fire Injury Prevention Project

Media Activities Record

Organization: _________________________________________________________

Reporting period: Starting Date: ______________ Ending Date: _______________

Please list all media activities for the reporting period shown above. Use two or more forms if needed.

Type of Media Activity: _______________________________________________________________

Date: _______________ Starting Time: ______________ Length: __________________

Personnel Involved: __________________________________________________________________

Media Organization: __________________________________________________________________

Type of Media: [ ] Newspaper [ ] Radio [ ] Cable TV [ ] Broadcast TV [ ] Other: _______

Estimated Audience: _________________ Comments: __________________________________

Type of Media Activity: _______________________________________________________________

Date: _______________ Starting Time: ______________ Length: __________________

Personnel Involved: __________________________________________________________________

Media Organization: __________________________________________________________________

Type of Media: [ ] Newspaper [ ] Radio [ ] Cable TV [ ] Broadcast TV [ ] Other: _______

Estimated Audience: _________________ Comments: __________________________________

Type of Media Activity: _______________________________________________________________

Date: _______________ Starting Time: ______________ Length: __________________

Personnel Involved: __________________________________________________________________

Media Organization: __________________________________________________________________

Type of Media: [ ] Newspaper [ ] Radio [ ] Cable TV [ ] Broadcast TV [ ] Other: _______

Estimated Audience: _________________ Comments: __________________________________

Please submit this form as part of your regular monthly report.

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Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research CenterResidential Fire Injury Prevention Project

Public Education Activities Record

Organization: _________________________________________________________

Reporting period: Starting Date: ______________ Ending Date: _______________

Please list all media activities for the reporting period shown above. Use two or more forms if needed.

Type of Fire Safety Education Activity: ___________________________________________________

Date: _______________ Starting Time: ______________ Length: __________________

Personnel Involved: __________________________________________________________________

Location of Educational Activity: ________________________________________________________

Primary Audience: [ ] Children [ ] Parents [ ] Seniors [ ] General Public [ ] Other: ______

Estimated Attendance: _________________ Comments: __________________________________

Type of Fire Safety Education Activity: ___________________________________________________

Date: _______________ Starting Time: ______________ Length: __________________

Personnel Involved: __________________________________________________________________

Location of Educational Activity: ________________________________________________________

Primary Audience: [ ] Children [ ] Parents [ ] Seniors [ ] General Public [ ] Other: ______

Estimated Attendance: _________________ Comments: __________________________________

Type of Fire Safety Education Activity: ___________________________________________________

Date: _______________ Starting Time: ______________ Length: __________________

Personnel Involved: __________________________________________________________________

Location of Educational Activity: ________________________________________________________

Primary Audience: [ ] Children [ ] Parents [ ] Seniors [ ] General Public [ ] Other: ______

Estimated Attendance: _________________ Comments: __________________________________

Please submit this form as part of your regular monthly report.

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Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research CenterResidential Fire Injury Prevention Project

MONTHLY REPORT

Organization: _________________________________________________________

Reporting period: Starting Date: ______________ Ending Date: _______________

Please complete this form and return it to your state liaison on a monthly basis. Attach records of all media and fire safety education activities that you have completed during the reporting period. Attach any other documents or information that you think may be useful. If you have any questions about this report or other project activities, please contact your state liaison or the state project coordinator.

List the primary activities (telephone survey, enrollment, alarm installation, etc.) that your organization has been working on for the reporting period.

How many hours of total personnel time (paid or volunteer) have project activities taken during this period?

__________ hours

If you are currently working on alarm installations, how many alarms were installed during this period?

__________ smoke alarms in __________ households

Describe any success stories, problems, partnerships with other local organizations, recognition by local or state officials, or other important happenings that have effected your project during this reporting period. Use the back of the page if necessary.

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Complete a copy this form for each residential fire that occurs in the project area during the project period, and for a period of two years after the end of the project. Return reports to the state coordinator.

Location: ___________________________________________________________________

Date: _______________ Time fire started: _____________ ( [ ] check if time estimated)

Time fire reported: ____________

Time FD arrived: _____________

Time fire controlled: ___________

Persons Present: Number of individuals living in the residence: ___________

Number actually present at the time of the fire: __________

Injuries and Fatalities: Injuries: ____________ Fatalities: ________________

Describe any injuries and/or fatalities (who, nature of injury, etc.): ________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

Structure: Type: [ ] Single-family house [ ] Mobile Home [ ] Apartment [ ] Other (Describe: ___________________________________)

Type of construction (wood frame, concrete block, etc.) _______________________________

Alarms: How many smoke alarms were present in the residence? _________________

Did they all work? [ ] Yes [ ] No

If not, describe how many failed, and why: ____________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

Were the alarms in the home installed by the project? [ ] Yes [ ] Some [ ] No

If some were and some were not, describe: _____________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Other: Which fire department(s) responded to the call? ________________________________

Comments: ____________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

Person Completing Report: ________________________________________________

Organization: ___________________________________________________________

Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research CenterResidential Fire Injury Prevention Project

RESIDENTIAL FIRE INCIDENT REPORT

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Survey Taker: Explain that you are calling on behalf of ____________________ or the University of Kentucky to ask some questions about fire safety.

Telephone Number called: __________________________

* Are you at least 16 years of age? ___ Yes ___ No (If no, ask to speak to an adult.)

* Do you live in the service area of the ____________________? ___ Yes ___ No (If yes, continue. If no, end the interview. Respondents must be in service area.)

* What type of residence do you live in? ___ House ___ Apartment ___ Mobile home

* Total number of floors, including basement, in this residence? _____________(If residence is an apartment count only the floors occupied by the apartment.)

* Are there two or more separate bedroom areas in the residence? ___ Yes ___ No(Note: This question refers to separate bedroom areas, not individual bedrooms.

Two or more bedrooms that are adjacent to each other are one area.)

* What is the total number of individuals living in the household? _____

How many of these people are: Birth to age 5 _____ 6 to 17 _________

18 to 64 _________ 65 or older ______

* Race/Ethnic Makeup of Household: ___ White ___ Black ___ Native American

___ Asian/Pacific Islander ___ Hispanic (White) ___ Hispanic (Black)

___ Native American ___ Other ________________________

* Additional questions about Fire Safety:

1. How many smoke alarms do you have in your household? ______ (If 0, skip to #6.)

2. How many of the smoke alarms are working? ______ (Enter a number, not yes or no.)

3. Where did you get your smoke alarms? __________________________________

4. Do you have smoke alarms in each bedroom area in your home? ___ Yes ___ No

5. How often do you test your alarms? _______________________________________

6. When did you last change the battery in your smoke alarm? ____________________

7. Do you have a fire escape plan for your home? ___ Yes ___ No

8. When was the last time you practiced your fire escape plan? ____________________

9. Have you ever had a fire in your home? ___ Yes ____ No

If Yes, what type of fire was it? ___________________________________________

When was it? ____________ Was the Fire Department called? __ Yes __ No

Was anyone hurt? __ Yes __ No Was anyone killed? __ Yes __ No

Describe what happened with the fire:_______________________________________

Don’t forget to complete question 10 on back of form.

Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research CenterResidential Fire Prevention Project

Telephone Survey Record

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10. Have you heard any information about smoke alarms during the past six months?

___ Yes ___ No

If yes: Where did you hear it, or who did you hear it from? ________________________

Did the information cause you to do anything? ____________________________

Survey Taker: Remember to thank the respondent for taking the time to answer the survey!

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Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research CenterResidential Fire Prevention Project

Smoke Alarm Inspection Guide

This guide, along with the Follow-up Inspection Record form, should be used whenever you do a follow-up visit. Follow the steps listed below for each smoke alarm in the home. If some alarms in the home were not installed through the project, record that information on the form.

Once you have arrived at a home where you will be doing a follow-up inspection, have a resident point out the smoke alarm(s) in the home. Note those that were installed by project personnel. Then examine all alarms and note their condition on the Follow-Up Inspection Record form. Examine each alarm for: - physical damage - serious dust buildup - functioning - any other conditions that might effect the performance of the alarm

To check an alarm for functioning, test the alarm by pressing the button on the face and holding it down for at least two seconds. If the alarm does not sound, check to be sure that there is a battery in the alarm. If there is no battery in the alarm, mark the alarm as non-functional due to a removed battery.

If there is a battery in the alarm but the alarm does not work, temporarily replace the battery with a new one and test the alarm again. If the alarm works when tested with the new battery, mark the alarm as non-functional due to a dead battery. If the alarm does not work even with a new battery, mark it as non-functional due to electronic failure. If the failure is due to obvious physical damage, mark that instead.

Repeat this process for every room in the home. If you find alarms with dead or missing batteries, replace the dead or missing batteries with new ones if you have them available. If you find an alarm with a missing battery, ask the residents why they removed the battery.

Once you have completed a check of all smoke alarms in the home, interview the residents. Ask the questions listed on the Follow-up Inspection Record form and write down the answers on the form. If you are not sure about an answer, ask additional questions to be sure that you understand what the person means. If someone refused to answer a particular question, mark that question as ‘Refused’ and continue with the next question.

When you have completed one or more follow-up inspection visits, return the completed Follow-up Inspection Record forms to your organization’s Residential Fire Injury Prevention project coordinator.

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Appendix D: Frequently Asked Questions

The following questions regarding the project have been asked at various times. These questions, and their answers, are included here to help clarify the responsibilities of the partner organizations involved in the project and to provide information for organizations that may be considering applying for participation in the project.

What is the application process to participate in the project? Read the application guidelines and instructions. If you don’t already have them, you can download them from this web site. Make sure that you are willing to follow the project guidelines. Fill out the application form (please don’t leave sections blank). Return the application form to the address listed on the form.

When are applications distributed? In general, applications are distributed in the spring (March or April) of each year. The funding cycle for each year starts on October 1, so organizations will be applying approximately six months in advance of the date when funding will be available. If a large number of well-written applications are submitted during a year, the state advisory committee may decide to use the same applicant pool for two years, and not mail out applications during the second year. In that case, applications may be requested from the project manager or the state project coordinator through March 31.

How are applications distributed? Application information is being mailed to every fire department listed by the Kentucky Commission on Fire Protection Personnel, Standards and Education and to all district and independent local health departments listed by the Kentucky Department for Public Health. Applications are also being distributed at public safety training schools and via other methods such as the web. (See: http://www.kiprc.uky.edu/fire/ for applications.)

Our agency didn’t get an application. Why not? If you are a formally recognized fire department or local public health department, an application was mailed to the address officially listed for your organization by the appropriate agency of state government. We have no idea why it didn’t reach you. If your organization is some other type of organization, either we did not receive a request for an application from your organization or the application we sent in response to your request did not reach the appropriate person. We will mail or e-mail applications promptly to those organizations that request them.

Is the application form available in electronic format? Yes. You can download it from this web site in either Microsoft Word (.DOC) or Adobe Acrobat (.PDF) format. (See: http://www.kiprc.uky.edu/fire/ for applications.)

Can I return the form via e-mail? Yes, but remember that we need a signature (not just a typed name) on the certification statement. You can use a digital scan of the appropriate signature, or print the certification page, have it signed by the appropriate person, scan the entire page at 300 DPI or higher and e-mail it to us (along with the rest of the application, of course) as a digital image. If you e-mail an image, please use only Windows bitmap (.BMP), graphics interchange format (.GIF) or compressed image (.JPG) format.

For those who want to complete the application electronically, a simpler solution may be to print the completed application and then fax it to us at (859) 257-3909.

Are you serious about the April 30 deadline for returning applications? Can’t I submit it a week later, when the head of our organization is back in town to sign the form? Is there any way we can get an extension of the deadline? Yes. No. Only under very rare circumstances, and only with an extremely good reason.

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In the simplest terms, what are local agencies expected to do if they are selected for this project? Local agencies must:

Train personnel to properly install smoke alarms. (Installer training is important, even if they are already certified firefighters.)

Sign up people to receive smoke alarms. This can be done either in advance of installation or at the time of installation.

Install smoke alarms in the homes where someone signed up. Enough alarms should be installed in each home to meet the guidelines of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).

Provide fire safety education to the residents of homes where smoke alarms are being installed, at the time that the alarms are installed. (This doesn’t mean a two-hour fire safety class, but it should include more than simply handing the residents a couple of brochures.)

Provide public fire safety education programs in their community. This is where the local agency can be creative: the programs can be public events, school-based programs, programs that target senior citizens, safety programs for those who heat with wood stoves or space heaters, or any other type of activity that addresses the fire safety problems of the local community.

Work with one or more local newspapers, radio stations or TV stations to publicize the project. Keep records of households signed up, alarms installed and educational programs that were

conducted and provide copies of those records to the KIPRC project staff. (KIPRC will furnish record forms for the enrollment and installation process.)

Do a follow-up check on a percentage of the homes where smoke alarms were installed, about six months after they were installed, to see how many alarms are still in place and working.

Track fires in homes in which smoke alarms were installed for at least two years and notify the KIPRC project staff if a fire happens in a home in which alarms were installed. Tell us about the fire, whether people were killed or injured, and if the smoke alarms worked.

What do local agencies who participate in the project get? In general, participating agencies will receive:

Free lithium battery smoke alarms to install in homes in their community. The alarms are rated by the manufacturer as having a service life of 6 to 10 years.

Free fire safety materials that can be provided to people when smoke alarms are installed in their homes.

One thousand dollars ($1,000) that they can apply to the purchase of any fire safety materials or equipment they want. This money cannot be used to buy fire fighting equipment.

Two thousand dollars ($2,000) in compensation for their time and expenses in doing the follow-up survey. This money can be spent any way the local organization wants.

For local agencies that install relatively small numbers of alarms (less than 500), the amount of funding awarded for fire safety education materials and follow-up inspections may be reduced.

How many smoke alarms will each local agency receive? This will vary based upon community size, need and the capacity of the local agency to install alarms. We expect that alarm allotments will range from about 800 to 1,600.

How long do we have to install the smoke alarms? In most years, approximately six months. Local agencies don’t have a full year to install alarms because of the time needed to set up the project in each community and the need to conduct a follow-up inspection of some of the alarms six months after they have been installed.

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What if we can’t get finished in time? As long as a local agency is making reasonable progress, they will not lose their alarm allocation if it takes them a bit longer than planned to install the alarms. Local agencies that are not making much progress in installing alarms, as determined by the KIPRC project staff or the state advisory board, may loose their allocation of alarms or other project benefits.

What if we decide not to do the follow-up inspection? The follow-up inspection is a required part of the project, and agencies agree to do that when they sign the agreement to do the project. If an agency does not do the follow-up inspection, they will not receive the project funding allocated to compensate them for follow-up expenses, and they will not be eligible for any future grants or awards from KIPRC.

Does a local agency have to be a fire department to submit an application? No. Local health departments, service organizations or public safety agencies that are not fire departments can participate. You do have to have experience in fire safety programs. If a local agency that is not a fire department applies for the project, we would expect to see efforts to coordinate the program with the local fire department(s), but we realize that in some cases the fire department(s) may not want to participate in the project.

When will local agencies know whether they were selected to participate in the project? There is no absolute date for awards to be made, but we expect that successful applicants will be informed by late summer of each year.

Do we get to choose the model of smoke alarm that we prefer? Generally, no. Smoke alarms are purchased in large quantities directly by KIPRC. This allows us to get the alarms at a lower price, which makes more alarms available to local agencies. This means that each local organization will receive the same model of smoke alarms. (The FireX Model C lithium battery powered smoke alarm is the model currently being used.) Departments that have a requirement for a particular model or type of smoke alarm that is imposed by law may be considered for an exception to this rule.

When will those agencies that are selected receive their smoke alarms? Unless we have unexpected problems with vendors or shipping, we expect to provide alarms to the successful applicants not later than the end of November of each year. It is possible that they will be available even earlier.

How many years will local agencies be able to participate in the project? The application is for a one-year project. The state advisory committee has not yet determined whether or not local agencies may re-apply for additional years.

How many local agencies will be selected to participate in the project each year? It will vary, depending upon the size of each award and the quality of applications received. In general, the number will range from two to five.

Will there be more than one round of grants each year? No. Applications that are not funded for one year, however, may be reconsidered for the next year.

What is the application deadline for next year? The application deadline for each year is April 30 of that year.

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What is the state advisory committee? This is the committee that helps set requirements for the project, select applications to be funded and makes recommendations to the KIPRC project staff to improve the project. A list of state advisory committee members is available from your state liaison or the state project coordinator. An effort was made to represent public health, fire service and public safety agencies from different areas of the Commonwealth on the committee. Committee members may not participate in the evaluation of applications from their agency or county.

Can someone be nominated for the state advisory committee? There is not a formal nomination process, but anyone who is interested in serving on the committee - or nominating someone else - may submit a resume for the nominee to any of the KIPRC project staff members listed below. That person will then be considered for possible membership by the advisory committee, either by an expansion of the committee or to fill any vacancies that may occur.

Who are the KIPRC project staff? A list of the project staff is included in this guide in Appendix A: Project Staff.

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Appendix E: Other Useful Information

In addition the information provided in this guide, and the information available from KIPRC, there are numerous other sources of fire safety information, educational materials and related items. Some of those sources are listed below. This is not an exclusive list; there are many other good sources of fire safety information and materials that were not included on this list.

United States Fire Administration Web site: www.usfa.fema.gov 16825 South Seton Avenue Phone: (301) 447-1000 Emmitsburg, MD 21727 Fax: (301) 447-1052

A US government agency that provide fire safety information, reports and fire safety educational material - most of it free.

National Fire Protection Association Web site: www.nfpa.org 1 Batterymarch Park - P.O. Box 9101 Phone: (617) 770-3000 Quincy, Massachusetts 02269-9101 Fax: (617) 770-0700

A non-profit membership organization dedicated to fire prevention and fire protection. This organization develops and sells fire safety educational materials. It also sets standards and codes that are widely adopted by the fire service and government code enforcement organizations.

Kentucky Fire Commission Web site: www.kctcs.net/kyfirecommission/ 2750 Research Park Drive Phone: (800) 782-6823 Lexington, KY 40512-4092 Fax: (859) 246-3484

The state agency responsible for firefighter training in Kentucky. This agency also helps sponsor fire safety projects.

Kentucky Firefighters’ Association Web site: www.kyfa.org Bryant Stiles, TreasurerPO Box 700Calhoun KY 42327-0700

A professional organization representing paid and volunteer firefighters in Kentucky.

State Farm Insurance Web site: www.statefarm.com South Central Region Phone: (615) 898-6000 2500 Memorial Boulevard Murfreesboro, TN 37131-0001

Private insurance company that provides free fire safety education kits and other fire safety materials.

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National SAFE KIDS Campaign Web site: www.safekids.org 1301 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Phone: (202) 662-0600 Suite 1000 Fax: (202) 393-2072 Washington, DC 20004

Private non-profit organization dedicated to reducing unintentional injuries to children 14 and under.

International Association of Fire Chiefs Web site: www.iafc.org 4025 Fair Ridge Drive, Suite 300 Phone: (703) 273-0911 Fairfax, VA 22033-2868 Fax: (703) 273-9363

Private non-profit professional organization that represents fire chiefs. This organization sponsors several fire safety programs, such as Operation Life Safety.

National Safety Council Web site: www.nsc.org 1121 Spring Lake Drive Phone: (630) 285-1121 Itasca, IL 60143-3201 Fax: (630) 285-1315

Not-for-profit organization dedicated to safety education and training.

Fireproof Children Web site: www.playsafebesafe.com 1 Grove Street, Suite 210 Phone: (585) 385-3370Pittsford, NY 14534

Safety group developed by the BIC Corporation to promote fire safety and teach fire safety to youngsters. This group sponsors the “Play Safe, Be Safe” fire safety education curriculum.

Fire Safety Institute Web site: www.middlebury.net/firesafe/P.O. Box 674 Phone: (802) 462-2663 Middlebury, VT 05753 Fax: (802) 462-2663

Private non-profit organization dedicated to fire safety research, information and education.

New York Department of State Web site: www.dos.state.ny.us 123 William Street Phone: (212) 417-5800 New York, NY 10038-3804 Fax: (212) 417-5805

Public agency with a very good fire safety web site for kids.

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