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NFPA Impact: Data is the key to prevention

By the time Ontario Fire Marshal Jon Pegg closed the two-day Operation SAFER (Smoke Alarms for Every Residence) summit in June, panelist after panelist had pounded home the same point: specific messages that target specific audiences identified through data is the only solution to the growing number of fire fatalities and lack of working smoke alarms.

“Using data to our advantage is exactly what we have to do,” Pegg told more-than 400 delegates in Vaughan, Ont. – primarily fire chiefs, fire prevention officers, and fire- and life-safety educators.

Fire- and life-safety educators have known for eons – they were all taught in their NFPA 1035 courses – that using data, drilling down to find root causes, creating messaging and, more importantly, programs, specifically for people identified as unlikely to have working smoke alarms, is the only way to reach them.

Now, the chiefs – at least those who were at the summit – and the Office of the Fire Marshal, understand that a single message, for example, working smoke alarms save lives (a good message but there’s no call to action and it’s too broad) isn’t effective.

To Pegg’s credit, he acknowledged he’s not a data guy – he’s more policy and big-picture – but after listening to experts who have reduced rates of impaired driving and raised millions of dollars for campaigns by using data to pinpoint target audiences, he gets it.

Who’s dying in fires in Ontario and elsewhere, and who is unlikely to have working smoke alarms? According to the National Fire Information Database there are specific groups: people who live in older homes; who are under the influence of alcohol or drugs; who are male; who are part of single-parent families; who move house often; who are new to Canada; who speak languages other than English.

Why, then, have we expected universal messages to be effective? And why do (some) fire departments not give their fire- and life-safety educators access to their data? Because it’s far easier to grab a message from the OFM or NFPA, post it on social media, and tick a box.

Some fire departments do a fabulous job using data, reaching audiences, increasing knowledge, and changing behaviour. But many departments don’t have full-time fire- and life-safety educators, capacity, or the knowledge to implement messaging and programs.

The great news is that now there is data available that can help put local stats in perspective. During Operation SAFER, the OFM and Len Garis, former fire chief in Surrey, B.C., who’s now leading the National Fire Information Database project, announced that Ontario – along with British Columbia – is partnering with StatsCan to make data available to its fire departments to bolster their community risk assessments.

Which brings us to NFPA 1300, Standard on Community Risk Assessment and Community Risk Reduction Plan Development.

All fire departments in Ontario are mandated to complete a community risk assessment by July 2024. Which is great. But even Pegg realized during Operation SAFER that next steps are critical, and departments need to also implement community risk reduction (CRR) plans, identify problems and root causes, create programs for specific target audiences, build partnerships to reach those target audiences, and regularly evaluate the programs to ensure they’re working, or revise them. NFPA 1300 outlines these steps and provides an easy-to-understand framework for implementing CRR. Go to www.nfpa.or/1300 or subscribe to NFPA LiNK (www.nfpa.org/LiNK).

In addition to the summit, Operation SAFER comprises a day of action on Sept. 28, on which Ontarians will be encouraged through a province-wide campaign to test their smoke alarms. (www.savedbythebeep.ca).

NFPA, the Ontario Office of the Fire Marshal, the Ontario Association of Fire Educators, the Ontario Municipal Fire Prevention Officers Association, and the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs collaborated on Operation SAFER. Now, other provinces and territories are getting involved, and the vision is to make Test Your Smoke Alarm Day and the Saved by the Beep theme national.

It took 133 fatalities – the most in one year, in 2022 – for Ontario to wake up and shift the paradigm to align with NFPA 1300 and NFPA 1035. With chiefs, fire marshals and fire commissioners on board, the availability of data, an easy-to-use standard, and a seemingly new will to work together rather than in silos, let’s hope 2023 is a better year.

Laura King is NFPA regional director for Canada. Contact her at lking@nfpa.org.