One of the least exciting jobs for a firefighter is the dreaded Community Risk Reduction assignment.

In an urban environment, CRR may mean doing a meeting with the people you serve. Or maybe you’re changing smoke alarm batteries.

Either of those—not exciting, but not so much work, either.

But if your department covers urban and rural areas, where you could be tasked to fight a brush fire, well, now you may have to do some physical labor ... plus those meetings.

Not all, or even many, departments have dedicated crews to community risk reduction. Often, CRR is one person, whose job may include other responsibilities.

Today, I’m talking with one of our favorite guests, Chad Costa, about what CRR can do for your community…and what you can get out of it, too.

Chad is assistant fire chief for the Petaluma, California, fire department. He has over 25 years on the job.