Travis County Commissioners Court
September 28, 2004
Item 4
4, approve pyrotechnic phaeugs recognizing October 3 through 9, 2004, as
fire prevention week in Travis County. We have do have several persons here
too receive this. There are approximately [indiscernible] reported in the
united states each year having a dollar amount of [indiscernible]. Whereas
in 2002 [indiscernible] and injured almost 14,000 persons. Whereas 7% of residential
fire deaths result from fires in homes with no smoke alarms or no working
smoke alarms.
>> ...with Travis County fire control.
>> don smith.
>> and don smith. To my left I have assistant fire marshal
brad beauchamp and julie and she would like to say a few words about what
she is planning for fire prevention week.
>> hi, I’m julie beachham, the public education coordinator
and just want to share with you things we're doing and throughout our prevention
week and the entire month of October. To begin we're plan to go have fire
safety presentations at several elementary schools in our district covering
kindergarten through fourth grade that will reach about 2300 children. We
will be participating in a school carnival with our robot dog hudson and ben.
Our fire operation will be at the home depot for their program. Our fire staff
will be busy with other public reraoepbgsz events, church functions and special
events at day care facilities. The firefighters will also staff an all-day
charity event that raises money for children who are burn victims. Even now
we're continue to go receive requests for public education services and that's
likely to completing fill our schedule next month. We're looking forward to
all of our upcoming opportunities to teach fire safety in October as well
as throughout the rest of the year. Thank you again for your time and interest.
>> those fire alarms cost how much?
>> about $10 apiece.
>> oh, 10?
>> yes, sir.
>> very cheap. And if you work with some of the local stores
around town, they've been offering for $7 so it's been nice to work with those
people to get smoke detectors out in the neighborhood. Esd 4 is working on
the programs that we're going to be doing for a lot of the kids. Most of those
are pre-school, elementary school programs. Sometimes we forget the elderly
citizens that we have. We don't go out and do some of those programs. We've
talked about it and actually today we'll be submitting a grant request to
fema, this was a little short program that opened up from August 31 till September
30 to get your paperwork in for fire safety, fire prevention. Our program
is going to be targeted to our target neighborhood that we do our fire academy
from, but we're going to go out to the del valle school and marion schools
trying to work to bring kids into the program. We're calling it fire safe
teams and they will be working in their neighborhoods to install smoke detectors,
put in batteries, we're going to talk about drills, how do you get out of
your home. The main thrust here is to try to get more young people involved
in fire safety, let them know what the fire service is about and how it can
affect their neighborhoods and it can provide careers for them in the future.
So we're kind of looking at something that's going to be a long-going program,
not just during the month of October. I just wanted to bring you up to speed
on that.
>> so do we think by having fire prevention programs that
involve children, we're hoping children not only learn, but they will take
the message home and persuade the parents to be more proactive also?
>> yes, sir, judge, and that's what studies have found. When
the children bring it to the parents, they tend to be more involved.
>> do we think it's especially important to have a fire alarm
if you have children in the house and maybe seniors for -- for seniors?
>> particularly, yes, sir.
>> but it helps everybody, even members of the Commissioners
court.
>> yes. [laughter]
>> hard wired with batteries.
>> we recommend that you check yours when you get home.
>> I want to bring attention especially about working with
the kids because that's real important. It's not just about the fire alarms.
There have been tragic stories. Houston was the latest, kids fascinated by
fire, light the fire and close the door. There have been tragic results because
of kids playing with fires either supervised or unsupervised and setting fires
in closet. The latest was in houston this last week and it breaks your heart.
It's also about knowing when they are not supposed to do something with that
lighter because there is that fascination with that age with lighters and
fireplaces and all that kind of stuff. I know you are doing that kind of work
too.
>> that's part of our fire intervention safety program that
we have with the children that we're starting and which julie is part of and
also chief smith's department is part of as well as the rest of the e.s.d.s
throughout the county.
>> October 3 through 9. All in favor say aye? That passes
by unanimous vote.
>> Commissioners, judge, can we bother you for one photograph,
please? I know you have a busy agenda, but --
>> okay. Do we come down front?
>> all right.
>> thanks.
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Last Modified: Thursday, October 27, 2005 9:27 AM