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Youth Fire Prevention Intervention
Program Overview
Data Reports
Parent/Caregiver Resources
School Resources
Fire Agency Resources
Newletters
Links to Partner Agencies
Order Free Youth Fire Prevention & Intervention Materials
Program Overview
The Office of State Fire Marshal’s Youth Fire Prevention and Intervention Program works in partnership with fire service, law enforcement, social service and school professionals to provide a continuum of services from prevention education to interven­tion resources for youth, ages 3 to 17 years of age, and their families. Services provided include, but are not limited to:
  • Collaborate with fire service and community agencies to develop and distribute prevention education, inter­vention and treatment resourc­es
  • Develop and train on preschool, elementary, and middle school fire awareness prevention curricula
  • Support statewide networks of multidisciplinary teams serving youth with firesetting behavior
  • Research and evaluate fire prevention and intervention strategies
  • Develop and deliver training to fire service and community partners to meet NFPA 1035 certification standards for  juvenile intervention specialists
  • Cooperate with local, state, and national organizations to support professional and program development
  • Oversee and train on Oregon’s web-based data collection system for juvenile firesetting data
  • Analyze, interpret and report on data related to youth and fire
  • Publish and distribute Hot Issues, a national newsletter of innovative strategies, best practices, research and resources for those concerned about juvenile firesetting
  • Support legislation to increase youth, family, and community fire safety
  • Participate in a tri-state coalition to support an annual western regional conference on youth firesetting and related topics
  • Provide technical assistance and serve as a clearinghouse for information and materials that support best practice
For more information about the OSFM Youth Fire Prevention and Intervention Program or materials, contact:
 
Judy Okulitch, Program Coordinator
Youth Fire Prevention and Intervention Program
Fire and Life Safety Education
4760 Portland Road NE
Salem, Oregon 97305
503-934-8230

Data Reports
Data collection and analysis is a critical component of our continuous quality improvement efforts. Data drives the development of programmatic goals, activity/project planning, decision making and policy. Data increases our working knowledge of the issue of juvenile firesetting; the youth, their behavior, and best practices for prevention and intervention activities. Data drives decisions made by funding sources at the local, state and federal level that support juvenile with fire prevention and intervention programs.
2004-2009 Juveniles with Fire in Oregon

2006 Juveniles with Fire in Oregon

2002 Juveniles with Fire in Oregon

2001 Juveniles with Fire in Oregon 

Parent/Caregiver Resources
A Guide for Home Escape Planning Toolkit
The Guide to Home Escape Planning is designed to engage parents/caregivers in discussing and planning a fire escape that fits the members of their families. Today, many families are intergenerational and so plans must include family members who may have trouble exiting the house. Parents and caregivers need to plan how to exit the house with infants or toddlers. This Guide is a valuable new resource for the fire professional to use when talking to groups about fire safety and fire survival. It is written in English and Spanish.
English/Spanish 
 
Parent Responsibility Booklet
Parents are often unaware of their legal and financial responsibility if their child sets a fire. This booklet has been used by fire department interventionists to educate parents. It has also been distributed to parents by schools and mental health professionals.
English 
 
Spanish 
 
Russian
 
Vietnamese  
 
The Bear Facts
Designed for parents with small children, The Bear Facts gives fire safety tips for many common household situations.
English
 
Spanish

School Resources
Classroom Guide to Fire Safety Poster
The Classroom Guide to Fire Safety lists common classroom circumstances teachers need to be aware of to increase classroom fire safety. The 16" X 20" poster provides information for reporting fires in schools, evacuation procedures, and contact information for deputy state fire marshals.
 
Click on image to open PDF
 
 
 

Report School Fires
Report Every Fire, Every Time, Any Size, Anywhere
 
The Office of State Fire Marshal’s Youth Fire Prevention and Intervention Program, in partnership with the Special Districts Association of Oregon (SDAO) and the Property and Casualty Coverage for Education (PACE) updated the report school fire/arson Oregon’s Report School Fires awareness and prevention program.                          
                                                                                                             
The program, originally implemented in 2005, is designed to help fire districts work with their local school districts to ensure the reporting of all school fires. 
 
Report Every Fire Brochure includes information on:
  • Reporting fires
  • Risk reduction
  • Youth-set fires
  • Evacuation
                                  
Report Every Fire DVD discusses the importance of reporting all fires occurring in, or on school property.
                           
                          Click here to view video  (TRT 3:35)
 
Oregon’s reporting laws for school fires require all fires to be reported and investigated.
 
OAR 837-039-0010 
OFC 401.3
 
 
The Report School Fires packet is available to all fire departments and school districts in Oregon at no cost. SDAO will be providing a packet to each of its member school and fire districts.
 
For more information, contact Krista.Fischer@state.or.us or
503-934-8240, or Judy.Okulitch@state.or.us or 503-934-8230.   
 
Click on image to open PDF
 
 
 
 

Do the Drill: A School Resource Guide to Evacuation Planning
Schools are required by ORS 336.071 to conduct drills for fire, earthquake, and tsunami where appropriate.
 
Oregon Emergency Management, Oregon Fire Marshals Association, Oregon School Resource Officers Association, and Special Districts Association of Oregon partnered with Office of State Fire Marshal to provide schools with information about conducting drills for fire, earthquake, shelter-in-place, and lock down. This information is assembled into a School Resource Guide to Evacuation Planning.
 
The guide is intended to ensure consistency in the messaging about school fire evacuation planning, drills and reporting. OSFM recommends using the Emergency Evacuation Drill Record (page 17) to record monthly emergency evacuation drills required by ORS 479.041(1) if the fire department, school district, or local school does not have a standardized form.
 
Click on image to open PDF
 
 
 

Fire Awareness Curricula
The Office of State Fire Marshal (OSFM) worked closely with the Oregon Department of Education in to assure the curriculums meet Oregon's common curriculum goals, content standards and benchmarks. The scope of lessons and their sequence is continuous from Grade 1 through Grade 8, with each lesson building on understandings developed in preceding lessons. The elementary and middle school curriculum is aligned with the Department of Education's Health Education Standards and meets ORS. 336.071 and OAR 581-022-1210. These curricula are available in hard copy at no cost to Oregon elementary and middle schools.

OSFM provides the curriculum materials and teacher training at no cost to Oregon schools. Teachers who have attended the one-day training had this to say…I have been to many classes over my 25 years of teaching. This was the best ever & I learned a lot and had fun!”


“Thanks for a great workshop. It moved quickly and was informative without being overwhelming. You’re very well informed-and now we are, too!”


“The materials are excellent.”


“All of the instructors did a great job giving information and demonstrating/ clarifying practices-concrete, relevant and engaging!”


“Thank you for a very worthwhile training.”
 
To schedule a Curriculum Training in your district, please contact Judy Okulitch at 503-934-8240 or judy.okulitch@state.or.us.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

What can You Do: A Fire Awareness Curriculum for Elementary School

What Can You Do is designed to teach fire awareness concepts to elementary students (Grades 1-5) and provide them opportunities to practice skills for personal, family, and community safety. There are five lessons for each grade. Topics covered include fire facts, fire prevention, fire safety solutions, survival skills, and fire smart decisions. A bonus unit, Native Americans and Fire, is also included for grades 3 & 4.
 
What Can You Do? Curriculum Components
Grade 1 & 2
Grade 3 & 4
Grade 5 

Timeline AD 
Timeline BC
Timeline Cards 
 
 

/OSP/SFM/images/YFPI/What_Can_You_Do_Brochure_Cover.JPG
Click on image to open PDF
 
 

It's Up To You! A Fire Awareness Curriculum for Middle School

With the publication of this curriculum, the Office of State Fire Marshal is taking a proactive approach to teaching youths in middle school about the reality of fire, how the media influences their attitudes and behaviors toward fire, the physical and legal consequences of misusing fire and how to make responsible and safe decisions in fire prevention and survival. The developmental stage of middle school youths makes this an appropriate and crucial stage to teach analytical thinking and decision-making skills around fire and life safety practices.


It’s Up To You Curriculum Components 
Intro to Curriculum
Curriculum Cover
 
Unit 1 - Fire and the Media 1 
Unit 2 - Fire Science
Unit 3 - Fire Prevention 
Unit 4 - Survival Skills
Unit 5 - Responsibility 
Unit 6 - Fire and the Media 2

Westhome Siren 
Westhome Siren-Special Earthquake Bulletin
Westhome Siren-Special Tsunami Bulletin 
 
 
Click on image to open PDF 
 
 

Start Safe: A Fire Awareness and Burn Program

Start Safe: A Fire and Burn Safety Program for Preschoolers and Their Families provides resources for preschool teachers and administrators to work hand-in-hand with a local fire department in delivering developmentally-appropriate fire safety education to children 3 – 6 years old. Start Safe was created by the Home Safety Council, in partnership with the National Head Start Association and Weekly Reader. The program was funded in part through a generous grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/FEMA.
 
Home fire safety is an adult responsibility! Reaching parents and caregivers is critical so that changes can be made in the home. Start Safe has been specifically designed to help teachers and fire educators to reach parent and caregivers with key safety messages and help them take action to reduce the risk of fires and burns at home.
 
In 2010, Oregon was selected as one of 12 states to participate in a national train-the-trainers program for Start Safe. By participating, OSFM’s Youth Fire Prevention and Intervention Program has committed to deliver trainings to prepare local preschool programs and fire service personnel to implement Start Safe in their communities throughout Oregon.
 
 
Photo from Start Safe trainings conducted in partnership with Oregon fire service agencies and Safe Kids Oregon.
 
   The Rover Report
          Winter 2012 
 
To view a webinar on the Start Safe Program, click on the link:
 http://www.safekidsoregon.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Start-safe.pdf 
 
 
For more information about the Start Safe Program, click on the link:
http://www.safekids.org/educators/Start-safe/fire-safety/ 
 
 
To schedule a Start Safe Training in your community, please contact Krista Fischer
at 503-934-8240 or email: Krista.Fischer@state.or.us 

Fire Agency Resources
Do The Right Thing! A Fire Awareness Curriculum for Elementary School

Do the Right Thing! provide the Fire Service with supplemental lessons to What Can You Do?, a fire awareness curriculum for the classroom teacher.
 
Do the Right Thing lessons are designed for delivery in the classrooms (Grades 1-5) by the fire service in partnership with the classroom teacher. The lessons take advantage of the special skills and understandings fire service personnel have based on their training and experience.
 
Lessons were developed by a core group of fire service partners working in partnership with the Office of State Fire Marshal (OSFM). OSFM intends to add lessons on a regular basis in collaboration with fire service partners.
 
Hard copies of the curriculum are available from the Office of State Fire Marshal’s Youth Fire Prevention and Intervention Program.
 
 
Click on image to open PDF
 
 

A Guide to Station Tours

Fire service professionals are called on to do a lot more than fight fires. Everything you do is an essential function to the important, life-saving work for which you are known. One of your responsibilities is to develop skills in delivering effective fire and life safety messages and programs that are age-appropriate for all citizens, both young and old. Your community and schools rely on you to provide accurate information in your area of expertise-fire and life safety. You can rely on them for accurate information in their areas of expertise-effective teaching strategies, research, and child development.
With this in mind, the Office of State Fire Marshal consulted with experienced fire educators and teaching professionals to develop this easy-to-use guide for station tours. The content and suggestions provided within the guide are research based and supported by leading fire and life safety educators across the country. Yet, one size does not fit all. The guide was developed to allow users the flexibility to adapt the material based on your agency’s standard operating procedures and the needs of your community.
The information provided in A Guide to Station Tours is organized by age groups and color coded. The guide aligns key fire safety messages to the developmental abilities of each age group and provides scripts that you can use to deliver fire and life safety messages while conducting a tour.
/OSP/SFM/images/YFPI/A_Guide_To_Station_Tours_Cover.JPG
Click on image to
open PDF
 
 
    Age Appropriate Learning Video (TRT 9:47)
    Tips for talking to children about fire safety.
 
 
 

Oregon Juvenile with Fire Screening Tool
The Oregon Juvenile with Fire Screening Tool is designed for use by fire service personnel to screen youth referred to them for a fire-related incident. This is a basic screening tool used to decide if a youth needs fire education intervention or needs to be referred to other community agencies. The screening tool is only the first step in the evaluation process for a youth who is misusing fire. It is not a risk inventory nor does it attempt to predict recidivism.
 
The Oregon Juvenile with Fire Screening Tool was developed through a two-year research study with the University of Oregon’s Institute of Violence and Destructive Behavior. State-of-the-art psychometric procedures were used to develop the tool. To accomplish this, more than 130 interviews completed by the Oregon Fire Service were analyzed using Item Response Theory (IRT). Through the IRT analysis, critical variables were identified and then carefully formatted into the Oregon Juvenile with Fire Screening Tool. Any changes to the tool violate the psychometric integrity of the original instrument and invalidate the results.
 
The Oregon Office of State Fire Marshal (OSFM) is willing to share the Oregon Juvenile with Fire Screening Tool with other fire departments and agencies working with firesetting youth on the condition that it is used only with our permission and the integrity of the tool is not violated by changing its form, wording or content.
Individuals and agencies requesting use of the Oregon Juvenile with Fire Screening Tool will be required to sign a Memo of Agreement agreeing to:
  • Obtain written permission from OSFM to use the tool;
  • Use the tool as it is, without changing its form, wording, or content;
  • Not distribute the tool to others.
If you are interested in learning more about the Oregon Juvenile with Fire Screening Tool or would like to request a copy of the tool, please contact Judy Okulitch at 503-934-8230 or judy.okulitch@state.or.us.
 
 
 

Adolescents with Fire: interventions for adolescents who misuse fire

Adolescents with Fire contain guided activities which educate about the legal, financial and emotional impacts of a juvenile-set fire. Acceptance of personal responsibility and accountability are stressed. This is an effective curriculum to use with non-delinquent youths who have made poor choices. It should not be used with delinquent or seriously troubled youths
Click on image to open PDF
 
 

Curiosity Curriculum: an intervention curriculum for school-age children

The majority of child-set fire incidents are the result of a child’s curiosity, ready access to matches and lighters, lapses in supervision, and a lack of understanding about fire. The curiosity curriculum is designed to teach children the difference between fire tools and toys, fire survival skills, and fire-safe behaviors.
 
Home Fire Safety is an Adult Responsibility! Parent/Caregiver involvement is critical to the effectiveness of this intervention program. The curriculum provides parent and caregivers with key safety messages and helps them take action to reduce the incidence of child-set fires in the home.

Click on image to open PDF
 
 

Fireworks Curriculum

Fireworks Intervention was developed for use by fire educators, juvenile court workers, school personnel and treatment providers working with youth caught misusing fireworks. The lessons are designed to hold youth accountable for their behavior while teaching the potential consequences (injuries or fires) if they misuse or alter fireworks. The curriculum stresses responsibility and accountability in the use of fireworks. Oregon laws about fireworks are included in the curriculum.
Click on image to open PDF
 
 

Safe/Unsafe Fires

This activity has a series of images showing fire being used in a variety of contexts such as birthday candles and campfires. The images can be printed with suggested discussion questions included on the back. When printed, the images can be used as seatwork with young children while an interventionist interviews the parents. Because the images are open to interpretation, they usually generate discussion: this provides an opportunity to educate about fire and also to determine the extent of a youth's knowledge about fire.  
Click on image to open PDF
 
 

High 5 Game
This is a computer game based on a popular television game show. Up to five people or five teams can play. The game was originally designed as a final review for a youth who has misused fire and their parents. 
Advanced Level 
 
Beginning Level
 
Spanish Version 
 

Newletters
Hot issues

Hot Issues is a quarterly newsletter of innovative strategies, best practices, research and resources for those concerned about juvenile firesetting. Hot Issues is published by the Oregon Office of State Fire Marshal and is distributed electronically.  
Please submit news, announcements, articles, suggestions or resources for review to:
 
Hot Issues, Editor
4760 Portland Road NE
Salem, OR 97305-1760
or via e-mail to: youthfireprevention@state.or.us
Click on image to read Hot Issues
 
 

NET.works
NET.Works is a semi-monthly newsletter distributed to all Oregon Juvenile with Fire Intervention Networks. NET.Works features useful information about the field of juvenile with fire intervention and spotlights recent activities of Oregon's networks. We invite you to share information about your local networks successes, upcoming meetings, community events and trainings with partners across the state. Please send information to firesetter@state.or.us
Click on image to read NET.works
 
 

Links to Partner Agencies

   Safe Kids USA   
       

Order Free Youth Fire Prevention & Intervention Materials
Youth Fire Prevention & Materials Order Form

Page updated: May 16, 2012