- Formative Evaluation – Planning
Ranked sixth in the nation at 17.7 deaths per million, Tennessee’s fire fatalities and mortality rate continues to be the primary focus of the TN State Fire Marshal’s Office. Individual fire prevention efforts have been successful on a small scale, but to make a more significant and greater impact statewide, the SFMO understands that there is a need to direct focus and attention toward the more vulnerable segments of the population in Tennessee and the immediate causes of fire. “Focusing fire prevention resources where they matter most” is a phrase that has been coined to emphasize concentrated efforts. With the continued support of the Governor, General Assembly, Commissioner, Department of Commerce and Insurance, and the insurance industry, as crucial stakeholders in coordinating this effort, the SFMO is committed to reducing the mortality rate, saving lives and reducing property loss caused by fire.
“Fires cannot be prevented without knowing specific details and demographics.” “If we can forecast where a fire will occur before it happens, we can prevent it through public education, code enforcement, and fire protection enhancements.”Historically over the past 100 years, Tennessee has had one fire death per every 100 structure fires.” If we can reduce fires, we will reduce fire deaths.”
- Process Evaluation – Implementation
The process of preventing fires and saving lives and property from fire involve 3 nationally accepted principles: (1) Education; (2) Enforcement; and (3) Investigation. Each of these principles is inter-connected and incorporates the involvement of each section of the SFMO. Educating both the public and firefighters, as well as enforcing adopted codes, save many lives across our state each year. Fire and explosion investigations connect both the education and code enforcement responsibilities to the determination of the cause and origin of fire, insurance loss prevention, and risk management.
Tennessee Demographics include a state population of approximately 6,346,105 people. Education is considered lower than the national average with 24% of adults having a Bachelor’s verses 29% in the US. The poverty rate is higher at18% versus the US at 15%. Tennessee has over 700registered fire departments with 22,500 total firefighters of which approximately 15,000 are volunteers. Ten fire departments protect 40% of population and 25 fire departments protect 50% of the state’s population.
Successful implementation of programs to reduce the number of unknown causes of fires, extensive research using modern GIS systems, analysis on a community street level, and understanding and applying risk reduction techniques will provide successful outcomes. Better understanding community risk will show where efforts should be focused. Targeting these forecasted areas with extensive resources will provide successful results.
Launched in November 2012, the“Get Alarmed Tennessee” programis responsible for over 100,000 smoke alarms being distributed for free by the SFMO. More than 450 fire service partners work to install the 10-year battery alarms in homes statewide. This program, along with focused fire prevention in high-risk areas of the state, has helped increase awareness about the dangers of fire. The smoke alarms provide the basic level of protection in homes, which is early detection, and have directly prevented tragedies from happening. Smoke alarms installed as part of the “Get Alarmed” program are credited with saving more than 129 Tennesseans from fire danger so far. Thirty-six of those direct saves occurred in 2015 alone.
- Impact Evaluation – Short Term Results
Fewer accidental or undetermined civilian fire-related fatalities occurred in homes in 2015 than in any previous year recorded in Tennessee history. Preliminary results show that 72 deaths occurred in Tennessee during 2015. The 2015 figure represents a 5% year-to-year decrease compared to 2014. The 2015 figure also represents a 51% decrease compared to the 146 fire fatalities in 2003- which was the highest total for fire-related deaths in the previous 13 years sample period. From year to year, fluctuations in the number of fire deaths may occur so experts measure progress utilizing fire death rates of a population over a fixed period of time. Because a state’s population usually changes over time, the number of accidental and undetermined civilian fire deaths is measured in proportion to the population.
- Outcome Evaluation – Long Term Results
Results show that from 2006-2010 to 2011-2015, the fire death rate for Tennessee decreased to 12.8 deaths per million, equaling a twenty-seven and 27.5% reduction. This reduction is the single largest reduction in Tennessee’s recorded history and approximately 12% greater than the projected reductions for the national rate. Because NFPA only releases rankings every 5 years, it will be 2016 before the new state rankings are published. The SFMO anticipates that Tennessee will no longer be ranked within the top 10 of states with the highest fire death rates.
Losing even one person due to fire is tragic. However, the fire service community in our state has worked diligently every year to reduce loss of life and their efforts are starting to be realized. Tennessee has seen a 28% reduction in loss of life over the last five years (2011-2015) from the previous five year average (2006-2010). On average, over 30 lives every year are saved due to the efforts of the fire service community. This reduction in loss of life is due to the education, prevention, inspection, investigation and suppression efforts of multiple arms of the fire service. This could not have happened without the support of local, state and nation-wide organizations, including: The American Red Cross, The National Fire Protection Association, The National Association of State Fire Marshal's, The United States Fire Administration, Vision 20/20, Local and state-wide education systems and many other local community organizations.
Prezi Presentation Link:
Gary L. West, TN State Fire Marshal