115 West Main Street
Lincolnton, North Carolina   28092
Voice: (704) 736-8516   Fax: (704) 732-9036

FIRE & LIFE SAFETY EDUCATION INFORMATION

FIRE & SAFETY OVERVIEW
 

The Fire and Life Safety Program goals for the Lincoln County Fire Marshal’s Office are to reduce the number of children and adults hurt or killed due to unintentional and preventable injuries. This department along with other agencies will focus on the leading killers of children under the age of 14 which include fire & burns, motor vehicle accidents (bicycle and pedestrian accidents), drowning, choking/suffocation, poisoning, and falls.

The Fire Marshal’s Office along with a broad-based group of community members will be responsible for increasing public awareness of unintentional preventable injuries and deaths. We will help to implement safety programs in the community, evaluating safety programs, participating in public initiatives, updating the County Commissioners and the North Carolina Department of Insurance - Office of State Fire Marshal.

Overview of the Fire and Life Safety Programs:

Unintentional injury is the #1 health threat to children under the age of 14-injuring and killing more kids than drugs and disease combined.

C. Everett Koop, M.D. stated, "if a disease were killing our children at the rate unintentional injuries are, the public would be outraged and demand that this killer be stopped."

Each year one out of every four children is hurt seriously enough to require medical attention. These injuries cost society $165 billion annually. Ninety percent of these injuries could be prevented if families took the simple steps necessary to protect their children.

While we’d like to think that children are learning basic safety skills from their parents and caregivers, they’re not – because many adults lack the knowledge to help our children lead safer lives. Research shows that must traffic injuries, drownings, fires, scald burns, choking's, poisonings, and falls are not random "accidents" – they are predictable and preventable. With education, motivation, and the support of caring adults our children can learn to be much safer.

Counties across the state are working to reduce the unintentional injuries and deaths across our state. Our County is not immune from this tragedy. Over the last several years we have had children to die or be injured from the following: fires and scald burns, motor vehicle crashes and pedestrian accidents, bike crashes, drownings, poisonings, choking's and suffocations, unintentional shootings, and falls. In order to reduce the needless injuries and deaths and the escalating cost of unintentional injuries to society, we must act now.

The Fire Safety House that we have purchased is designed to prepare people of all ages for the unexpected experiences of fire and other emergencies through the use of hands – on equipment.

The Fire Safety House is not just limited to instructing fire prevention and home escape techniques. This house can be used to prepare for the following emergencies also: tornado, earthquake and disaster preparedness, stranger awareness, crime prevention, water safety programs, babysitter programs, first aid and CPR training, fall prevention, storage of chemicals and other products properly, and many other house hold safety programs.

Our office along with other agencies are also putting together safety programs to be used to teach and train adults on what to do prevent unintentional injuries and deaths. We feel that we not only need to work with our children, but we must get the information out to the adults also. By educating our children and adults on how to prevent unintentional injuries and deaths will allow both to reinforce and motive each other. We want to work with all the citizens of Lincoln County from preschool to senior citizens, so we have put together or we will be working to establish programs for all ages.

 Some of the programs that will be used to work with adults and children are as follows:

The Lincoln County Fire Marshal’s Office, along with other agencies, believes that the Fire Safety House and all the safety programs we plan to use will have an unlimited potential to make a measurable impact on the safety of children and their families. By forming the right kinds of strategic goals early on, we will get this information into the hands of teachers, community leaders, parents, children, and fire-police-rescue personnel who will help protect our children and adults from the tragedy of unintentional injuries and deaths.

The Fire Safety House, Patches & Pumper and characterization will be used at all schools in the county and city. The Fire Safety House, Patches & Pumper and as well as characterization will be used at special events such as the Apple Festival, Fire Prevention Week Activities, Fire Safety Fair Day, Dare Day at the Park, just to name a few events.

This Fire Safety House can be used not only by the Fire Marshal’s Office but also by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s department, the Lincoln County Red Cross and many other departments within the County. So many groups can use this Safety House and Safety Programs to reach, teach and educate our children and citizens on Fire and Life Safety Programs.

The Fire & Life Safety House can be scheduled to go to schools, daycares, churches, businesses and industries and civic functions by calling the Lincoln County Fire Marshal’s Office at (704)–736-8516. We will try and meet every ones needs.

 Guidelines for Teaching and Use of the Lincoln County Fire & Life Safety House

The teaching outlines and use of the Fire & Life Safety house will be supervised by the Lincoln County Fire Marshal’s office along with Lincoln County SAFE KIDS Coalition and Smart Start Partnership for Lincoln-Gaston Counties.

Before any staff member or volunteer is allowed to help with the teaching evolutions, they must attend a training class on how to present the training materials to each age group. The training sessions will be conducted by the following personnel: NC State certified Fire & Life Safety Educators Level II or above, Health Department personnel, Social Services personnel and Smart Start trainers. Our goal is to have the best-trained personnel presenting this vital information. The Fire & Life Safety house will be used by trained personnel only and they will be presenting the safety programs. A record will be kept of trained personnel in the Lincoln County Fire Marshal’s office and in the control room of the Fire & Life Safety house. The lead instructor will check off the personnel at the training session and that list must be turned into the fire marshal after each use.

After each use, the fire marshal’s office will compile a report of the sessions and send it to the proper agencies for their records. The report will consist of the age group(s) at the session, number of children and/or adults attending, information covered during the session and any problems that they may have encountered.

We will use the following proven guidelines, programs and manuals for presenting fire & life information to the public:

It is our main objective to never frighten a child(ren), especially birth to five years of age. Our goal is to train children and adults in safety.

State and national statistics have shown that children between the ages of 2 - 5 years are most likely to start fires and they are the ones who usually die in those fires. Our county does not want to be part of those numbers if we can help it. The only way not to be is to target this particular age group with training. If we can stop just one accident, injury or death, then all the training was well worth our time.

The Fire & Life Safety house brings a home-like environment to the daycare or other facilities so we can show the children and/or adults what to do instead of just telling them what to do. Hands-on demonstrations are much better when trying to explain the different safety programs. With this house, we will be able to teach the person how to call 911, show them what to do if their house is on fire, what to do during a storm emergency, what to do if a stranger comes to the door and show them other safety issues around the house.

We will use this fire & life safety house to teach and train children in the age group of 0 to 5 on what to do during an emergency by: