• Home
• ››
• Public Safety
• ››
• Fire
• ››
• Public Education

Fire Public Education

The mission of the Community Relations Branch is to create a more positive change in attitudes toward fire and life safety behaviors and inform the public of methods to keep fires from occurring.

The proper actions to take should a fire occur can be accomplishedby educating the citizens of Tulsa through various means, such as safety and prevention programs, presentations, meetings, pamphlets, and brochures, and Public Service Announcements. Public fire and safety education will reduce the occurrence of injuries and fatalities as a result of behavior change. The job of promoting community safety is a paramount and monumental task. No one organization has the resources to accomplish this mission alone, thus making community safety education a collaborative effort between many organizations and agencies that advocate public safety.

The Community Relations Branch covers a wide variety of child safety issues such as water safety, poison prevention, bicycle safety and burn prevention. This is accomplished throught several different programs. To get more information on these programs click the Child Education link in the menu.

Four times per year the Tulsa Fire Department install smoke alarms with a program called Project Life. This program is based on the previous year's statistics of the four highest fire incident square miles. Fire companies canvas a square mile installing smoke alarms, inspecting and replacing batteries.

T.U.L.S.A. (Tulsan's Utilizing Lifesaving Smoke Alarms) is another newly developed smoke alarm program that went into effect January 2005 and is utilized anytime a fire company responds to a residence.

The third smoke alarm program called After the Fire, is initiated every time a fire fatality occurs in a residence. Fire companies canvas door-to-door two square blocks around the fire location to make sure every home has a working smoke alarm.

Each year in the United States, nearly 2000 children age 14 and under die from motor vehicle related crashes, and more than 325,000 are injured. In response to this alarming statistic Tulsa Fire Department Public Education Branch assists Tulsa area Safe Kids Coalition with numerous car seat check up events that undoubtedly will save countless lives. Currently, there are several car seat certified firefighter technicians on the department. The third Thursday of each month from 2-4 p.m. a car seat checkup event is held at Fire Station 22 (7303 E. 15th St) to assist the community with car seats. Another event is held the fourth Thursday of the month from 10 a.m.-noon at Riverside Chevrolet (707 W. 51st St.).

With 107 combined years of experience in the fire service, our office, which is staffed by Tom Hufford, Rick Bruder, Rick Thompson, Ray Evins and Mike Walker, continue to take the lead on the unintentional injury front. The following is an example of services provided:

• General Fire Safety Classes/Presentations
• Portable  Fire Extinguisher Training (Classroom Only)
• Smoke alarm Programs
• Child Passenger Safety Education
• Child Car Seat Checks
• Emergency Preparedness Plans for Businesses
• Fire Safety Trailer
• Station Tours
• Fire Truck Showings and Presentations at Schools and Churches
• Public Education Assistance to Fire Company Personnel
• Juvenile Firesetter Program

This list, while not complete, serves as an example of what our office accomplishes on a yearly basis.

Community Relations Statistics 2008