PBF Education

Fires that start in couches on porches and decks are a pretty big problem in off-campus housing. In April 2010, a student was killed in an off-campus house fire that started in a couch and there have been a lot of other fires that started in couches out on porches.

Since January 2000, Campus Firewatch (www.campus-firewatch.com) has found 33 incidents involving porches and nine of them were fatal ones, killing 20 people. This is 14% of all of the fire fatalities since 2000, a significant number.

Always seems to be the same scenario...the fire breaks out in the middle of the night, after a party, on a porch or deck. Since it is outside, smoke alarms (if the house has them) don't pick up the smoke and the alarm is sounded by someone passing by. By that time the fire has a pretty big head start and when it does move into the house through a window or door, it is really ripping. Now people are trapped or having to jump out of upstairs windows to get away.

The most common cause?

A cigarette.

Where do the couches come from?

That is the question of the day (year, decade, century...?).  How to effectively reach today's students with information, particularly information that they don't know they need, such as fire safety.

I'm not going to pretend that I have all (or any) of the answers, but these are some things I have learned through reading, research and observing my two sons.
 
Let’s admit it, fire safety is not the first thing on student’s minds when they are at college.  There are a million distractions and they are bombarded with marketing messages. So, the issue is one of getting their attention and getting them involved…getting them engaged.
 
The Problem

• Fire safety is not a priority to many students (are you surprised? You shouldn’t be!)
• Administration does not give enough time for campus fire safety training
• Fire safety is competing with a lot of other messaging (drugs and alcohol use, sexual assault, personal safety, etc.)

So…How do you make your efforts stand out?
 
Some ideas

• Opportunity: The fact that you are not given enough time and have to compete with these other programs is not a problem but a HUGE opportunity
• Stand Out: This is an opportunity to make your topic stand out from the field by being creative.
• Cool topic: You have fire as a topic…one of the coolest things.  What person does not like an opportunity to put out a fire?  What person does not like the chance to interact with fire fighters?  What person does not like to be on a fire truck?  Even the most jaded, or "coolest" student, in their heart, likes all of that.
• Community Service: Students are into community service more than ever right now.  What can they do with you that would qualify as community service right alongside fire fighters?
• Help to install smoke alarms (get to ride on a fire truck?) in high-risk demographics
• Install residential sprinkler systems in Habitat for Humanity Homes
• What else can you think of?
• Learning by Doing: By engaging the students in DOING community service they have the opportunity to learn about fire safety.  There is no better way to learn than to have to do.
• Creating Ambassadors: The students can become ambassadors for fire safety.

Some strategies

• igot2kno: Use igot2kno.org as a training platform.  It is online and free.  You already paid for it so why not use it???
• Multiple messages, multiple media: There is no “silver bullet” in delivering the message.  Use the internet, live demonstrations, email, text, Twitter, Facebook, contests, the student newspaper.
• Social media: Go where they are, don’t expect them to come to you.  They aren’t going to.
• Contests and sweepstakes: The prizes don’t have to be big and expensive (although that helps!)

Part of the problem is also crafting effective, sticky messages.  Coincidentally, there is a great book written on that very topic called "Made to Stick" that I strongly recommend.  It uses a simple acronym for the six steps to developing a sticky message...

SUCCES

• Simple
• Unexpected
• Concrete
• Credible
• Emotional
• Stories

Since January 2000, when Campus Firewatch started tracking campus-related fatalities, four out of five of the deaths happen in off-campus housing.  That is over 80% of the fire deaths.  Why?

Well, no one has done a definitive study, but I have a few ideas.

• Off-campus housing is, what I would call, tired.  OK, run down.  Beat up.  You know what I mean.
• Students living off-campus aren't limited by rules in the residence halls such as smoking, candles or alcohol.
• Those living off-campus now have to cook for themselves...sometimes for the first time in their life!
• Parties.  More on this in a minute.

OK, let's talk about how a number of the fires have started.

• At night.  A vast majority of ALL fatal fires start at night when people are sleeping.
• The smoke alarms have been disabled for whatever reason.
• A cigarette butt has rolled down into a seat cushion and lies there smoldering until it breaks out in flames.
• A large number of fires have started in couches on porches and decks.  When a fire starts there, it has time to grow into a pretty big fire before getting into the house through a window.  Almost universally, it is a passerby that sees the fire and raises the alarm.
• So many of these fires break out after a party when the occupants have been drinking.  What does this mean?  Their reaction time is drastically changed, and not for the better.  A study done of students determined that your ability to respond to an alarm drops SIGNIFICANTLY after just one beer.  The decrease is not as significant (but still there) after more than one beer.  So, the greatest risk occurs after just drinking your first beer.

What can you do?

• Know two ways out, no matter where you are. Your room, your house, your dorm, a restaurant, a movie theater.  You never, ever know when you will need it.
• Cigarettes.  If people are smoking in your house or at your party, have lots of ashtrays.  Real ones, not improvised ones like beer bottles or, worse, the trash can.
• Check the seat cushions before going to bed, make sure a cigarette isn't sitting there.  Don't forget the couch on the porch.
• Before you go to bed, take out the trash and take it away from the building.  If there is a smoldering cigarette in there, let it break out outside and away from your house.
• Smoke alarms.  You should have one on every level, outside of every bedroom and, for maximum protection, in the bedroom as well.
• However, if they aren't working, it doesn't matter how many you have.  Don't ever, ever disable them.