Program Delivery

Delivery of your Smoke Alarm Installation Program will be one of the easiest tasks accomplished by your department, as long as they have guidance and support from the leadership. This guidance and support includes developing and maintaining a policy, procedure or guideline to provide your members with the proper process to follow, as well as providing them with the equipment needed to successfully administer the program.

With this document in place, members will have the process required to complete the installations, which will occur in three specific areas.

1. During Post-Incident Surveys
   

   Each time your department responds to an incident in a single or multi-family dwelling, they should seek permission from an adult occupant to ensure there is a properly operating smoke alarm installed in the home. If one does not exist, members should install a department provided smoke alarm where it will provide the greatest protection in the sleeping area of the home. Smoke alarms should become a standard piece of equipment carried on all of your apparatus, available for needed installations to each home you respond to for an incident, as well as when responding to citizen request and during targeted installation campaigns.

2. Responding to Citizen Requests
   

   Development of a mechanism to respond to citizen requests for smoke alarm installations is highly recommended, and should include a combination of: telephone request line, e-mail address and a web site request form. The department should develop a process and mechanism through which citizens can call a central phone line to request a smoke alarm. It is also advantageous if this phone line is connected to an answering machine, allowing citizens to make requests when the phone line is not staffed. This same process could also be implemented through an e-mail request form that goes to a designated e-mail address assigned to the department or through a request form located on the department web site. See the Smoke Alarm Request Form in the Appendix.

3. During Community Installation Campaigns
   

   The department can advertise and perform targeted community installation campaigns. These campaigns can be community-wide or can be targeted to specific communities, neighborhoods or complexes. Your department should utilize incident data to identify and target areas with the greatest concentration of fire incidents, specifically incidents that result in injuries and deaths. The department can also utilize community demographics to target homes that are populated by children under 5 years old and citizens over the age of 60.