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Fire & Life Safety Education
Fire & Life Safety Educator
Betsy Dine
The Fire & Life Safety Education Division delivers instruction throughout the District. The Fire and Life Safety Educator is responsible to educate the public about the risks of fires, falls, CPR training, choking, and other threats to life safety, as well as informing the public on how to best minimize the risks of suffering injury or death and unintentional injuries from said risks. The Educator is directly responsible for Community Risk Reduction throughout the District. Community Risk Reduction (CRR) is a process to help communities find out what their risks are and develop a plan to reduce the risks viewed as “High Priority”. Once it is viewed as High Priority, programs are coordinated and implemented to reduce that risk. Our goal is to properly follow and abide by our Department’s Community Safety Mission. The Fire and Life Safety Educator is responsible for the effective supervision and education of the different “at-risk” programs that are implemented throughout the District.
There are 6 steps to follow for a successful CRR Program:
Step 1: Identify Risks
Step 2: Prioritize Risks
Step 3: Begin to develop strategies and tactics to mitigate the risks
Step 4: Prepare the Community Risk Reduction plan
Step 5: Implement the plan for the community
Step 6: Monitor, evaluate and modify the plan while tracking short-term and long-term results
Community Risk Assessment (CRA) is an important first step in the CRR process. It is a comprehensive evaluation that identifies, prioritizes, and defines the risks that pertain to the overall community. The CRA informs the CRR plan and results in a full understanding of the community’s unique risks, capabilities, and characteristics related to the following profiles: Demographics Geography Economics Building Stock Hazards Past Loss & Event History Community Service Organizations Public Safety Response Critical Infrastructure
The Fire and Life Safety Educator develops, coordinates, presents, oversees and evaluates each program throughout the District. Our goals and objectives are established each year and include curriculums and programs to reduce the risk of injury, harm or death. The District offers numerous classes and programs to help reduce that Community Risk. The District must follow the annual budget guidelines and all programs are approved by The Chief and Board of Trustees. Fire safety awareness is important to make sure that individuals know how to respond during a fire hazard or emergency situation. It is important that one should keep calm and know the basic measures that should be undertaken when a fire breaks out and how to prevent the fire, keeping the sources of fuel and ignition apart. Effective strategies and education in all areas are a must when discussing unintentional injuries and plans of escape: Poison and prevention Drowning and prevention Suffocation and prevention Burns and prevention Falls and prevention Accidents vs unintentional injuries Escape planning: plan and practice with your whole family Get low and go, crawl under smoke Get Out and Stay Out Know 2 ways out of every room Have a plan, practice and know what to do immediately
Never go back in for anything in a burning building Know your family meeting place in front of your home
Some of the duties and credentials of the OFPD Fire & Life Safety Educator include: Giving presentations to groups of children, teens and/or adults regarding the risks of fires, falls and other such hazards Giving Station tours for school aged children, Boy and Girl Scout troops, teens and/or senior groups. Individuals and group are also given tours as they want to know more about our Firefighters and the stations within their district in which they live Educating the public about the benefits of having “working” smoke alarms Organizing, planning, and following through with events to educate the public, such as: Kid’s Fire & Life Safety camps, Junior Cadet camps, station tours, parades, safety fairs, and our annual Open House Fire extinguisher training, CPR training and other trainings related to fire and life safety issues Car Seat Check-ups for Orland Fire Protection District Residents. Education for motor vehicle crashes and prevention Home Safety Check ups Senior “Coffee & Conversation” monthly meetings related to topics that pertain to fire and life safety education (fall prevention, holiday safety, CPR training and poison prevention) Certified Dementia Educator and implemented all OFPD Firefighter/Paramedics being CertifiedDementia trained (CFR-DT) Created the “Dementia Friendly Orland Park” website. https://dementiafriendlyorlandpark.org/. This website is equipped to support people suffering with a form of dementia and their caregivers. Businesses in the OFPD village can get their business training on this website Dementia Support Groups held at the Orland Fire Protection District on the Second Monday of each month Conducted multiple Fire drills in schools and commercial businesses within the District Development of Public Education teaching materials that can be used in all areas A member of the Illinois Fire Inspector Association and a member of the Fire and Life Safety Educators Board of Directors Offering safety messages on each of our station signs, such as: messages to inform the public of the different risks for each season/holiday and/or different events that are happening within the District Annual toy drive collections at all 6 stations, including our Administration Building
Participant in the National “Sound Off” program for school aged children Proper evaluation of all programs is essential Active Fire Inspector for the Orland Fire Protection District* (*Due to COVID-19 limiting the Fire & Life Safety Educator’s regular duties of interacting with the community due to the events, lessons and programs being cancelled or postponed, working with the Fire Prevention Supervisor, Mike Ercoli, has been beneficial to the Fire Prevention Division, as I was able to begin monitoring local fire alarms within the District and perform fire inspections) Some school programs participated in Fire Prevention week/month but some opted to wait for the pandemic to slow down or stop all together Coffee and Conversation Group meetings were held remotely, at first. Then for a short time, we conducted in-person meetings until a new surge of the COVID pandemic. For more information on these or other scheduled events, please visit:
http://www.orlandfire.org
Orland Park Police Night Out Against Crime
On August 3, 2021, the Orland Fire District participated in the Orland Park Police's National Night Out. This event is part of a nationwide push to strengthen police and community relations to make our neighborhoods safer. OFPD was happy to be part of this wonderful event. Great job OPPD!
