CRR Radio

NFPA has released an updated educational messaging guide that includes new sections on campus fire safety and wildland fire safety. This guide contains a wealth of fire safety messaging covering a wide range of topics to help fire safety professionals develop standardized messages. You can download the EMAC Guide at https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/Resources/Educational-messaging

Past IAFC President and Rogers Arkansas Fire Chief Tom Jenkins had the opportunity to travel and meet with fire departments across the United States and around the globe during his year in office. He sat down with CRR Radio and shared his observations on how fire departments are working with Community Risk Reduction and the challenges they are facing.

In this episode of CRR Radio we talk with Matt Hinds-Aldrich from the NFPA about the two-year grant they were awarded to look at how to better collect data relating to CRR activities.  Having a better way of documenting CRR activities would be key to helping develop evidence-based programs by collecting data relating to activity and outcomes. NFPA is looking for information on how departments are currently documenting their activities as part of this research project, and if you have something to contribute, please contact Matt Hinds-Aldrich at [email protected]. (Sorry about some of the audio glitches during the podcast, we had an intermittent connection!)

In this episode of CRR Radio we talk with West Midlands FIre Service Chief Officer Phil Loach about the research project being undertaken in the UK to develop evidence-based methods for evaluating the impact of CRR (or as they call it, Integrated Risk Management). Phil Loach is Chief Fire Officer for West Midlands Fire Service, the largest UK Fire & Rescue Service outside of London. Alongside this, CFO Loach is also the Vice Chair for the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) which is made up of Chief Fire Officers from all 50 UK Fire & Rescue Services. Within the NFCC, CFO Loach is Programme Executive for the Community Risk Programme which has been set up to develop a comprehensive, evidence based and accredited risk analysis toolkit that is endorsed by the NFCC to assist UK fire and rescue services in developing their community risk management plans, while also being available to inform the understanding of Government departments around approaches to community risk management. The Programme is currently carrying out a Research Project that will include reaching out across the world to understand the approaches taken internationally when it comes to Community Risk Management. The Community Risk Programme is therefore inviting the International Fire Community to get in touch with the program if they would like to contribute or be involved in the exchange of ideas and sharing of approaches. Fire departments in the United States and other countries outside the UK can do so by contacting Group Commander Martin Ward-White at [email protected].

NFPA 3000 is the new standard that focuses on responding to hostile events and active shooters. In this episode we talk with John Montes from the NFPA, Lori Moore-Merrell from IAFF and Massachusetts State Fire Marshal Peter Ostroskey, all involved in the development of this important standard and how you can use it in your community. For more information on NFPA 3000, go to http://www.nfpa.org/3000 For more information on The Vision 20/20 Project and Community Risk Reduction, visit http://www.strategicfire.org/crr To listen to other episodes of CRR Radio, now in its second season, go to http://www.strategicfire.org/crrradio and be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts

This episode of CRR Radio focuses on the efforts being done in Huntington, West Virginia and Manchester, New Hampshire to address the impact of the opioid crisis on the communities and the departments. First, we speak with Huntington Fire Chief Jan Rader, who was featured in the Netflix Oscar-nominated documentary Heroin(e). We then talk with Firefighter Chris Hickey from the Manchester Fire Department about their Safe Station program that is being adopted by other departments across the country. Heroin(e)http://heroinethefilm.com/ Huntington Fire Department http://www.cityofhuntington.com/city-government/city-departments/fire Manchester Fire Department https://www.manchesternh.gov/Departments/Fire The Vision 20/20 Project http://www.strategicfire.org CRR Radio http://www.strategicfire.org/CRRRadio

In Cobb County, Georgia, they formed a CRR Co-Op that is bringing together a wide variety of organizations to begin focusing on county-wide risk reduction. Wendy Korotkin talks about the first problem they chose to address…the opioid crisis that is sweeping across the nation and is having an impact in Cobb County. We then talk with Fred Durso from NFPA about the new podcast series they produced, The Survivors, which chronicles the impact of a tragic, fatal fire in Landers, Wyoming on a family, the fire department and the community

Virtual Reality and Fire meet up in this episode where we learn how the Poudre Fire Authority and the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery teamed up to produce a virtual reality tour of an off-campus house fire. This is a great educational tool that PFA is using with different audiences and it really places the viewer in the middle of a fire scene - something that they have never seen before. More info is available at http://www.strategicfire.org/crrradio#vr VR Tour on RoundMe https://roundme.com/tour/191762/view/ Fort Collins Museum of Discovery http://fcmod.org/ Poudre Fire Authority http://www.poudre-fire.org/Home/Components/News/News/247/17?backlist=/ Campus Firewatch http://www.campus-firewatch.com/vr

In this episode we focus on using data to help predict where home fires may occur and technology to help detect them in vacant properties. This episode also ties into an earlier one Data and Smoke Alarms in New Orleans that you might be interested in. Using data to predict fires e start by talking with Jon Jay, a doctoral student at the Harvard School of Public Health, and author of the article "Can Algorithms Predict House Fires." In this article, and on this podcast, Jay talks about how it is possible to use data to predict where house fires are more likely to occur in a city so that the fire department can better focus its prevention and home safety visits, and the results are astounding. By randomly visiting neighborhoods, it was determined that a fire department would probably visit 20% of the homes likely to have a fire. However, by using a data-driven approach, this percentage jumped to 71% resulting in a much more effective and efficient use of staffing. The data that was used is from publicly available sources, and by bringing together a variety of data sources it is possible to refine the model significantly and really hone in on the geographic areas of the city as well as the different property types. Using technology to detect fires We then have a conversation with Nathan Armentrout from Eidolon who invented CASPER - Continuous Autonomous Solar Powered Event Reporter. This is a device that is installed in vacant homes and listens for the sound of a smoke alarm in the building then sends out an alert by cellular signal to the cloud. This device came about as a result of a hackathon sponsored by Louisville, Kentucky, where there was a problem of fires in vacant homes. These fires were creating significant risks to the other homes around them because they were not being detected until they were well developed instead of in their early stages. The city put the problem forward to the Level 1 hackerspace, and competition was put together to find a solution. Armentrout developed CASPER which has been successfully pilot tested in Louisville and he is now rolling out in beta to other cities.

In this episode of CRR Radio we talk with National Fire Academy Superintendent Tonya Hoover about the role of CRR at NFA and her views on how the fire service is coming to embrace CRR across the nation. For more information on Community Risk Reduction, be sure to visit The Vision 20/20 Project at http://www.strategicfire.org/crr