Sprinkler Age A Publication of the American Fire Sprinkler Association
Digital and Community Outreach Makes a Difference
When the Runyan Acres (Ark.) Volunteer Fire Department learned they were a recipient of a $750 stipend to support community outreach during 2024 Home Fire Sprinkler Week this past May, they scheduled an open house event. The funds were used to purchase an Oculus Virtual Reality (VR) headset to show the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition (HFSC) VR fire and sprinkler educational video. They also purchased a canopy tent with the fire department and HFSC logos to attract open house visitors. The combination worked well. More than 250 members of their community attended, including a state representative. According to Fire Chief Dalton Shannon, the department would not have participated in Home Fire Sprinkler Week without the stipend. He said the open house and VR experience of an actual house fire “really opened the door for conversation,” explaining that many people didn’t know home fire sprinklers existed.
Thanks to a grant from State Farm, HFSC awarded $750 stipends to 40 fire departments that submitted plans to support their grassroots safety education activities during Home Fire Sprinkler Week. The stipends were used to produce educational banners, purchase monitors to show educational videos, boost social media messages and conduct live fire and sprinkler demonstrations. Like Runyan Acres, some fire departments purchased virtual reality headsets. Fire departments that decided to build home fire sprinkler displays received the stipend as well as a free RiserPACK bundled by AGF Manufacturing with components donated by Potter, Viking, and Watts.
New this year, HFSC’s stipends could also be used to print and disseminate flyers or posters that were generated with the new Home Fire Sprinkler Studio. Also funded through a State Farm grant, this free, online studio can be easily used by fire departments to tailor and customize educational content with their logos, website URLs and other local information.
In addition to purchasing a monitor, the Newton County (Ga.) Fire Department used the studio to create the fire timeline poster and displayed it during their open house. According to Fire Safety Specialist James Franklin, community leaders who attended the event saw the timeline and watched the VR video. They were surprised at how fast home fires become deadly and how quickly and effectively installed fire sprinklers work, Franklin says. He also noted the new resources would help get the conversation started to support home fire sprinklers in new construction. The department continues to use the items purchased with their stipend in monthly outreach to educate the community and leaders.
As with previous years, 2024 Home Fire Sprinkler Week continued to build momentum. Its digital media campaign reached more than 2.3 million people throughout North America. The campaign focused on the home fire problem and the need for better under¬standing of the life safety benefits of installed home fire sprinklers. Much of this success came as members of the fire service, other fire safety advocates and the fire sprinkler industry utilized HFSC’s dedicated Sprinkler Week webpage to share social media and website content. To boost interest, there was a different theme with suggested videos, graphics and sample text each day of the week. Another sign of momentum is that more than 13,700 internet users visited HFSC’s YouTube channel, spending 350 hours viewing content during the week.
Between the digital campaign and community outreach programs, Home Fire Sprinkler Week has become an increasingly successful hybrid campaign, uniting the very best of fire service in-person and online educational outreach to help achieve local community risk reduction goals.
What to watch for next: HFSC will spend the rest of the year promoting its free Built for Life Fire Department program with a new video and website featuring powerful testimonials from fire departments that are making home fire sprinkler education a local priority. Finally, HFSC will continue to promote the studio, including resources to customize content for 2024 Fire Prevention Week. For more information visit HomeFireSprinkler.org.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Peg Paul is the founder/president of Peg Paul & Associates (PPA), a marketing communications firm that specializes in fire and life safety education and awareness programs. Paul has been the communications manager for HFSC since 1997, where she oversees the development and implementation of educational programs for members of the fire service, local officials, consumers, home building industry, real estate and insurance agents, water purveyors, and other targeted groups. Paul and her team have secured more than $10 million in Federal and corporate foundation grants. Paul serves on the board of the NFPA Research Foundation and the IAFC Life Safety Section. She served on the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors board for 10 years. In 2023, Paul received the CFSI/IFSTA Dr. Anne W. Phillips Award for Leadership in Fire Safety Education. She was named AFSA’s 2014 Fire Sprinkler Advocate of the Year.
