Reduced frequency and severity of residential fires following delivery of fire prevention education by on-duty fire fighters: cluster randomized controlled study.
BACKGROUND
In 2008, Surrey Fire Services, British Columbia, commenced a firefighter-delivered, door-to-door fire-prevention education and smoke alarm examination/installation initiative with the intention of reducing the frequency and severity of residential structure fires in the City of Surrey.


METHODS
High-risk zones within the city were identified and 18,473 home visits were undertaken across seven temporal delivery cohorts (13.8% of non-apartment dwellings in the city). The frequency and severity of fires pre- and post- the home visit intervention was examined in comparison to randomized high-risk cluster controls.


RESULTS
Overall, the frequency of fires was found to have reduced in the city overall, however, the reduction in the intervention cohorts was significantly larger than for controls. Furthermore, when fires did occur within the intervention cohorts, smoke detectors were activated more frequently and the fires were confined to the object of origin more often post-home visits. No equivalent pattern was observed for the cluster control.


CONCLUSIONS
On-duty fire fighters can reduce the frequency and severity of residential fires through targeted, door-to-door distribution of fire prevention education in high-risk areas.
Surrey Fire Services, 8767 132 St, Surrey, BC, Canada V3W 4P1. jclare@surrey.ca
Joseph
J
Clare
Len
L
Garis
Darryl
D
Plecas
Charles
C
Jennings
D000061:Accidents, Home / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001955:British Columbia; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D061388:Firefighters; D005390:Fires / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D011482:Protective Devices / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*