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Welcome
Welcome to the Community Fire Safety Operational Guide. This book, the companion CD and the web site, located at www.vsfemsa.org, were developed through a grant award presented to the Virginia State Fie and EMS Association from the Assistance to Firefighters, Fire Prevention and Safety Grant program. These documents were developed for fire and EMS departments across the Commonwealth of Virginia, as well as the entire Nation, as a simple, consistent, and comprehensive set of guidelines to assist them in the delivery of fire prevention programs.
Project Goal
The goal of the grant project is to provide emergency service organizations with working templates and tools necessary to deliver critical and consistent public fire safety education programs to their community. The Association recognizes the many critical areas and responsibilities required to effectively and efficiently manage an emergency service organization, including: recruitment; training; maintenance; and response to emergencies. Other areas, such as fund-raising, membership retention and delivering fire safety education programs, are equally as important for the organization to maintain. Unfortunately, some of these latter areas are neglected to ensure that core response services are sustained.
Opportunity to Assist Emergency Service Organizations
The Virginia State Fire and EMS Association utilized this grant opportunity to provide this guide to all emergency service organizations across the Commonwealth. This effort is to support department leadership by providing the groundwork required to deliver a consistent and
comprehensive fire safety program. The project deliverables were designed generic in nature and content, so the materials can be customized to individual departments. By entering a small amount of data, the program materials can be customized for your organization. By registering on the web site, many components of the guide will be automatically customized.
Program Data Collection
A significant component of this project is to capture program delivery data and successes. By registering your department on the web site and reporting your program deliveries, you will be assisting the Association with making this project a success. The Association will report back to FEMA the types of deliveries, as well as the numbers of contacts you make with your citizens. No additional department information will be shared with any other organization.
In addition to the User Guide, the Community Fire Safety Operational Guide consists of six additional modules, each designed to walk you through the process of developing a consistent and comprehensive fire prevention program that can be delivered to all segments of your community. The modules include instructional narratives and participant guidelines for all subjects, and the companion web site and the program CD allow you to customize the information for your individual department. Each module also includes example documents and matching templates that your organization can customize for their department, through both the CD and the web site.