June 2016
American Community Enrichment has now completed the Firewise Communities Phase 3 Community Outreach Event planning and development for the Cities of Elma, Montesano, Aberdeen, Hoquiam and Taholah. This has been accomplished through meetings with City elected officials, Public Safety (Fire Districts) and Police Departments as well as Citizens/Community Members.
Our Community Outreach events have been developed for teaming up with specific City events such as the City of Elma Police and Fire Department Safety Fair that took place on June 25, 2016.
Our Firewise Communities Outreach for this event included Firewise displays depicting defensible space around homes and businesses, Firewise Safety Education Handouts focusing on Family Evacuation Plans, the importance of Smoke Detectors throughout the home, Fire Suppression Systems that can be hooked up to outdoor home faucets, and the use of Barricade Fire Suppression Gel applied to homes and shrubberies in the event of impending fires.
Future outreach events will also cover strategies to be presented via informational handouts as well as power point presentations on the following home fire safety topics:
- Event Strategy: Keeping Your Community Cooking Safely
- Priority Safety Messages:
- Stay in the kitchen when you are frying, grilling, or broiling food!
- Remain in the home while food is cooking and use a timer to remind you that you are cooking!
- Keep anything that can catch fire away from your stovetop!
- Keep the stovetop, oven and burners clean!
- Keep a 3-foot “kid free zone” around your cooking area!
- If you have a cooking fire, when in doubt, just get out and call the Fire Department!
- Additional Cooking Safety Strategies will include:
- Dealing with small grease fires started in a pan or oven, additional safety tips for grilling, microwaves and dealing with burns
- Future outreach events will also include
“Keeping Your Community Safe with Home Fire Escape Planning” strategies: - Preparing a home escape plan strategy – Drawing a map of your home showing all doors and windows
- Discussing the plan with everyone in your home
- Knowing at least two ways out of every room if possible
- Ensuring all doors and windows leading outside open easily
- Establishing an outside meeting place that’s a safe distance from the home where everyone should meet
- Practicing your home fire drill at night and during the day with everyone in your home twice per year
- Practicing using different ways out
- Teaching children how to escape on their own in the event you can’t help them
- Closing doors behind you as you exit
- If the Alarm sounds: Get out and stay out!
- Never go back inside for people or pets
- Call the Fire Department from outside your home!
- Future outreach events will also include promoting “Annual National Wildfire Community Day” that will include the following information:
- Purpose of the Annual National Wildfire Community Day
- This day is set aside to Challenge friends, family, relatives, faith-based groups or youth organizations to develop a project and join others throughout the nation in making big changes to raise wildfire awareness, promoting collaborations and bringing neighbors together to work on projects that can help bring the community together to work on projects that can help protect homes, neighborhoods and entire communities from wildfire or current post-fire-impacts
- Encourage: Capturing accomplishments with photographs and videos.
- Purpose of the Annual National Wildfire Community Day
- Future outreach events will also be used to promote upcoming “Fire Prevention Week October 9th through October 15th 2016” and encourage Communities to plan and participate in event activities.
What is the purpose of “Fire Prevention Week” and what is this event?- Fire Prevention Week was established to commemorate two Large Fires, the Great
Chicago Fire of 1871 that killed 250 people, left 100,000 homeless, destroyed more than 17,400 structures and burned more than 2000 acres – This fire began on October 8th - The largest Fire of 1871 was actually a Forest Fire that roared through Northeast Wisconsin burning down 16 towns and killing 1,152 people and destroying 1.2 million acres
- Fire Prevention Week was established to commemorate two Large Fires, the Great
- What has resulted from “Fire Prevention Week” activities?
- Nine decades of fire prevention were started from the memories of these historic fires and today the Firewise Communities Program presents a way to keep the public informed about the importance of fire prevention
- Nine decades of fire prevention were started from the memories of these historic fires and today the Firewise Communities Program presents a way to keep the public informed about the importance of fire prevention
- Our outreach events will also provide education regarding Firewise Designated Communities receiving Firewise Community Program Credits.
- These Firewise Community Credits can assist Communities with projects, grants and schooling. Project ideas should focus on reducing wildfire risk and increasing preparedness. These projects can be accomplished by:
- A broad range of ages
- Come in a variety of time commitments ranging from an hour to an entire day or weekend
- They can be used as class projects or Community Outreach programs from local business or faith-based organizations
- These Firewise Community Credits can assist Communities with projects, grants and schooling. Project ideas should focus on reducing wildfire risk and increasing preparedness. These projects can be accomplished by:
- Firewise Communities Project Strategies to be presented at future outreach events include the following:
- Raking and removing pine needles and dry leaves within a minimum of 5 feet of a home’s foundation
- Disposing of collected debris in appropriate trash receptacles (Expand to 30 feet distance around the home)
- Mowing grasses to a height of four inches or less
- On mature trees use hand pruners and loppers to remove low-hanging tree branches up to a height of 4 feet from the ground depending on the type and size of tree
- Collecting downed tree limbs and broken branches and take them to a dedicated disposal site
- Working together as a family to video-tape and take photos of their possessions
- Developing and practicing a home evacuation plan
- Creating a Family Communication Plan
- Building or updating a 72-hour survival kit
- Encourage the use of social media or text messaging to send Firewise and Emergency Preparedness tips to your contacts and friends
- Supporting your Fire Department by having a bake sale or a garage sale and donate the proceeds in support of wildland fire teams
- Assisting elderly relatives or neighbors to enter emergency numbers and the names of close relatives into their cell phones; and in large font post their phone number and street address above their landline so it can easily be seen when providing information to an emergency dispatcher
- Encourage working with neighbors to develop a phone/text tree that can be used to alert everyone about a fire or evacuation
- Building an emergency kit for animals
- Stressing the importance of locating two alternate routes out of your neighborhood
- In support of demonstrating how to create Defensible Space around homes and businesses future outreach events will include the following strategies:
- Information sharing with regards to Barricade Fire Prevention Gel that includes product displays, how to apply the product on homes, trees and shrubs as well as product background facts such as:
- This product has been evaluated by the Wildland Fire Chemical Systems (WFCS) Program of the USDA Forest Service and found to be safe for use by firefighters and safe for the environment and the public
- The following 2 pages contain details about Barricade Fire Prevention Gel:
We’re very pleased to report the June 25th Elma Police & Fire Departments Safety Fair and Firewise Communities Program Outreach was a wonderful success. The City of Elma has also expressed their desire to become a Firewise Designated Community and that American Community Enrichment assist them with the application process.
We are looking forward to holding future Firewise Communities Program Outreach Events that will be coordinated with Grays Harbor County City events as well as Quinault Indian Nation Tribal events.
Additional Firewise Communities Phase 3 Community Outreach Event progress will be reported as it is scheduled and completed.
Jesse Cardenas,
President, American Community Enrichment
Mary Swarthout
, American Community Enrichment
City of Elma Police & Fire Departments Safety Fair June 25thEvent
The following are pictures of this event that included a Firewise Communities Program Information and Display Outreach Event and Prize Raffles. Prizes included Emergency Survival Backpacks, Emergency Radios and Emergency Food Ration Bars.
