NEAFC 31st Annual Conference.pdf - New England Association of ...

NEW ENGLAND ASSOQIATION OF FIRE CHIEFS
’Owners and occupants of buildings need to ’be impressed with the fact that the
tire department is maintained for the prevention and control of fires, andi it is to their
adva.ntage to call the fire department inproblems 9f fire prevention and protection.
Fire departments are.organized to give citizens protection agains.t loss of life and property
~by :fire~ While fire fighting must .be their pri~mary job, the most alert of these departments
.consider that their full measure o.f service to the citizens requires as much
attention to preventing fires as to putting them out. Intelligently,made inspections are
the ~backbone of effective fire-prevention work.
While one week each year is proclaimed as Fire Prevention Week, it really only
means a revival of our fire-prevention activities which are carried out throughout
the whole year.
Home and Business Inspections
,The majority of fires are caused in, dwellings, and we therefore organized, our whole
department to try and inspect not only the business section of our city, but a house-tohouse
call, to try and advise the occupants of any fire hazards which might exist within
the home. After this inspection was carried out, a report was left with the occupants
as to the conditions found, and one of our fire,prevention pamphlets advising of the
hazards of fire was left with the report. ’Over 10,000 of these dwelling inspections were
made, and many thousands of these fire-prevention pa.mphlets were distributed throughout
the city during the campaign.
Schools
It has long ’been recognized by fire departments that our children, can play a large
part in preventing fires, and in this regard an effort is made to visit the schools at least
twice a year, for the purpose o.f carrying out fire drills, and giving talks on how to preven.t
fires in their homes, and what action to take when fire is discovered. These inspections
always prove popular with the children, as the firemen bring along one of the
pieces of fire apparatus, and put .on a demonstration in the handiling of life-saving and
fire-.fighting equipment.
During fire-prevention week, each child is given a Jun.ior Fire Inspector’s badge,
making him or her a Fire Inspector during the campaign and throughout th4 year. Over
Y,000 of these were ’distributed.
Every co-operation is offered ,by the schcols, and this year we had to appoint seventeen
of their older members for detail to the fire department each day of the campaign to
take over the different administrative positions. It was very interesting to see how
seriously these ~boys took over their jobs and~ carried out their duties under the supervision
of our otticers. I personally had a young lad act each day as Chief, and he
drove with me in my car and followed the activities of the position throughout the day.
After these boys returned to their respective schools, they were required to write an
essay on the work of the fire department, and explain to their classes what they saw and
the position, they held.
The essays were submitted to the department, and prizes were awarded by our
Board of Trade for the ’best and the nearest.
Fire Prevention Talks
Prior to and during Fire Prevention Week, members of our Department visited
each service club meeting, showed pictures and gave a short talk on the fire hazards
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