Home Fire Sprinkler General Prevention & Awareness Campaign
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Home Fire Sprinkler General Prevention & Awareness Campaign Fiscal Year 2009 Summary Report March 29, 2010 – May 15, 2011 FY2009 MISSION STATEMENT The Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition is highly committed to protecting the ultimate value of human life, striving for a nation in which not a single man, woman or child dies needlessly in a tragic fire. The mission of the nonprofit Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition is to save lives by increasing awareness of the benefits and availability of residential fire sprinkler systems, ultimately increasing the number of installations in new one- and two- family dwellings. HFSC Board American Fire Sprinkler Association Canadian Automatic Sprinkler Association International Association of Fire Chiefs National Association of State Fire Marshals National Fire Protection Association National Fire Sprinkler Association Phoenix Society State Farm Insurance Underwriters Laboratories Inc. U.S. Fire Administration HOME FIRE SPRINKLER GENERAL PREVENTION & AWARENESS CAMPAIGN Fiscal Year 2009 Fire Prevention and Safety Grant Summary Report March, 29, 2010 – May 15, 2011 FY2009 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ..............................6 FIRE SERVICE OUTREACH Built for Life Fire Department (BFLFD) Side-by-Side Demo Media/ Education Program. 8 BFLFD Side-by-Side Demo Stipend Program ...21 Flip Video Camera Distribution ..............30 Public Education Kit Update ................31 Fire Service Impact Video ..................32 Fire Service Advertising ...................33 HOMEBUILDER / REAL ESTATE AGENT OUTREACH Homebuilder Advertising ..................34 International Builders' Show ................35 Built for Life Homebuilder Education Kit .......36 Real Estate Agent Advertising ..............37 National Association of Realtor Convention ....38 LOCAL OFFICIALS / MUNICIPAL MANAGERS OUTREACH Local Officials / Municipal Managers Trade Show ...........................39 CONSUMER OUTREACH Consumer Advertising .....................40 Consumer Educational Material Reprints ......41 PUBLIC RELATIONS Public Relations Reach ....................42 Side-by-Side Demo Satellite Media Tour ......43 HFSC WEBSITE HFSC Website Updates ...................45 Web Comments ..........................47 5 GENERAL PREVENTION & AWARENESS CAMPAIGN GRANT SUMMARY REPORT FY2009 INTRODUCTION The following pages of this report provide the details and many stipend-funded side-by-side units were used repeatedly and the examples of HFSC’s successfully completed national home fire fire safety educator was told by one family in the audience that they sprinkler education/awareness campaign. We have met or were stopping construction of their new home in order to have a exceeded our stated goals and objectives. sprinkler system installed; a second family made the decision to HFSC continues to sustain the Built for Life Fire Department retrofit their existing home after seeing the demonstration. Program (BFLFD), which was launched with a FY 2007 Fire HFSC also offered Flip video cameras as in incentive to get fire Prevention & Safety Grant award. This program’s purpose was to departments involved in BFLFD and to encourage their encourage more fire departments to focus on home fire sprinklers documentation of local side-by-side and other home fire sprinkler as part of their local safety outreach activities. It was also intended educational activities on video, which is an effective way to to recognize fire departments that make that commitment. BFLFD increase awareness and maximize investment through websites, has been extremely successful, with 2,043 U.S. fire departments YouTube, etc. agreeing to teach about home fire sprinklers, an increase of more These components of HFSC’s grant program reinforce the than 15% since this grant was implemented. tremendous value of the side-by-side as an educational and In this grant year, HFSC worked directly with 12 U.S. fire motivation tool, and they underscore the ease with which departments departments to fund and help them build and present live flashover can effectively utilize HFSC’s turnkey educational materials. We also and fire sprinkler educational events, commonly known as side-by- learned from feedback how important the stipend was to fire side demonstrations. Since HFSC created the comprehensive departments that have experienced shrinking resources. side-by-side kit providing fire departments with all the information HFSC has begun to experience a steep increase in requests for they need in order to build and present these educational events, our educational materials. Most of the tools we create can be we’ve been inundated with interest not only from the fire service downloaded or used online, however some materials are best but also from the media. The dramatic demonstrations attract large utilized in “hard copy”. To accommodate the increased need and audiences and are ideal for print, Web and broadcast media. to assist departments that want to teach about home fire sprinklers Because the demo units can be reused indefinitely, the investment but don’t have the information (or skills) independently, HFSC is cost-effective, especially in comparison to sprinkler trailers. included a component of this grant program to reprint key tools. HFSC guided the BFLFD fire safety educators to ensure that these These are outlined within the grant report. Among these is the local demonstrations had high impact, achieved high audience Public Education Kit, which we redesigned to simplify use. It now reach and were sustainable through the Internet, etc. The result contains live links that will help educators put their hands on just was great and in one case (New Orleans, LA), the demonstration the tool they need, when they need it. From a cost-effective drew an audience of 5,000. In another (Orlando, FL), the standpoint, we also redesigned the kit to make it much less demonstration was used to conduct a live national satellite media expensive for future reprinting and fulfilling. tour, netting 518,498 placements across the country. In 2008, HFSC broke new ground with the creation and We also offered BFLFD departments the opportunity to apply for widespread distribution of brief multimedia impact videos $1000 stipends to cover the costs of an independent local side-by- targeting our key audiences. These proved so successful we side demonstration. Successful applicants were required to incorporated a new video into this FY 2009 grant program, demonstrate how they would use the funds, and ensure that there focusing on the educational value of side-by-side presentations. were educational components and follow-up evaluations. With this By distributing this through national fire service media e-blasts, grant, HFSC awarded 100 of these stipends. These departments we were able to send this important information to more than demonstrated the ability to utilize the step-by-step instructions to 92,000 fire service readers. Live links gave viewers instant build their demonstration units, ensure that the presentation was access to the kit and other free materials on HFSC’s website, and educational, attract local sponsors and media, and evaluate the to register for the BFLFD program and e-mail the video to others. demonstrations’ effectiveness. In one case (Lake Mary, FL), the This component not only increased the awareness of the value of 6 GENERAL PREVENTION & AWARENESS CAMPAIGN GRANT SUMMARY REPORT FY2009 INTRODUCTION (CONT.) these educational demonstrations; it also motivated the fire HFSC also updated and reprinted our most widely used service to join the BFLFD program. educational materials for these audiences. Two additional ways that we promoted the importance of local Whether or not a municipality is considering code updates or home fire sprinkler education outreach to the fire service were an residential fire sprinkler ordinances, local officials need to be exhibit at the Fire Rescue International conference and a fire trade educated about the technology. HFSC has been increasing its advertising campaign. Our exhibit gave attendees exposure to reach to local officials in recent years. During this grant period, HFSC’s newest information, materials and opportunities, including HFSC exhibited at two key gatherings – the International City/ the BFLFD Program. To increase reader interest in the ads, we County Management Association Annual Conference and Expo used testimonials from BFLFD departments that conducted local and the National League of Cities Congress of Cities and side-by-side demonstrations. Exposition. These were important opportunities to share the facts Another important target audience in this grant program is the about home fire sprinklers with local officials at every level. broader homebuilding community – namely homebuilders, All of the previous activities ensured that factual information would developers and real estate professionals. Outreach in this sector is be available to consumers from third parties, such as their local fire vital because negativity and misinformation among them has department, homebuilder and local officials. HFSC also reached steadily increased, creating needless questions and concerns consumers directly, with a focus on the high-risk to fire of young among consumers about home fire sprinklers. HFSC has proven children and older adults. HFSC reached nearly three million with past performance that our targeted, strategic and steady targeted readers with inspiring facts about the need for fire sprinkler interaction with these professions pays off. By exhibiting at their