Take a Break for Safety Initiative Bearing Fruit

As part of the newly introduced Community Risk Reduction Strategy initiated by Effingham Fire Chief Bob Tutko, the "Take A Break for Safety" program has returned some positive results for the community and local school children.

Under the Take A Break For Safety program, the Fire Department in cooperation with local Effingham city public and private elementary schools enlisted grade school students as Fire Safety Ambassadors to perform Fire and Life Safety Inspections of their homes, with the help of their parents.

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), residential home fires are the leading property type for fire deaths (73.2%), fire injuries (76.5%) and fire loss (54.7%). Chief Tutko related, "While we can’t ignore these figures, the fact is that the fire department does not have the authority to inspect single family properties in an effort to reduce these numbers. While we do perform fire-life safety inspections on apartment buildings, we can legally only conduct inspections of the 'common areas' and not the individual units."

Tutko said, "Our strategy then was to engage the school children who we teach fire safety to during the school year, and in turn make them community Fire Safety Ambassadors who take the lessons learned in school back home to their families. In the Take A Break For Safety initiative, we asked the students to take time during their spring break to perform a fire and life safety inspection of their home with the aid of their parents to check the operation of fire and carbon monoxide detectors, develop a home safety plan, and insure combustible material was moved away from heating systems such as furnaces, stoves, and water heaters.

As an added bonus, we were able team-up with the Homewood Grill as our private business partner who not only embraced our program but agreed to be our partner in this event and offer a free ice cream cone to the winning class room at each of the participating schools."

As a result, Firefighter Ken Hayes, Effingham Fire Department Public Education Coordinator, who also is a certified school teacher collected the Take A Break For Safety Surveys and has announced that 273 safety surveys were returned from local students.

Hayes said, “That translates to a considerable number of single family homes that have been inspected by their owners to insure detectors are working properly, a fire safety plan has been developed and in turn reduced the likelihood of a fire."

“We would like to extend a big thank you to our school kids, and the Effingham Public and Private Schools for their participation in helping to keep our community safe, and of course an extra thank you to the Homewood Grill for participating with us and providing 75 gift cards for this program – so not only has the Community benefitted from this program, but our school kids get a treat as well."

Tutko said, "The Department will continue to explore initiatives designed to keep the residents and the community safe, and prevent those mishaps that can have a devastating effect on the community. We will also involve our private and fellow public partners in these initiatives."