SMMC gets funds for firestarter intervention program (Printed Aug. 31, 2007)
By Amanda Estes
Staff Writer
Maine children are playing with fire and statistics show they’re not the only ones getting burned.
According to the Maine State Fire Marshal’s Office, in 2004, fire departments statewide responded to 377 incidents in which juveniles were somehow involved in the ignition of a fire. That year, the incidents resulted in more than $11 million in property loss.
A Fire Prevention and Safety grant, recently awarded to Southern Maine Community College (SMCC) by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), will provide the seed money for a statewide initiative to spread fire safety awareness and provide intervention and support services for at risk juveniles and their families.
The $360,974 grant will strengthen juvenile fire safety collaborations in Androscoggin County, Cumberland County, Kennebec County and York County, while creating partnerships in four more pilot counties or regions.
Richard Taylor, a senior planning and research analyst with the Maine State Fire Marshal’s Office, pointed to the York County Fire Setter Intervention Program as an effective model of a collaboration between the fire service, law enforcement and the mental health community.
“We need to build the capacity to recreate the model you have working well in York [County] and recreate it around the state,” he said.
Taylor said the SMCC grant will help implement a program that will continue on even after a firefighter leaves the service.
Steve Willis, Director of Public Safety Education and Leadership Initiatives at SMCC, said the grant provides funds to hire a full-time program director, a support person and a data assistant to work with the Fire Marshal’s Office.
With more than 100 full-time students enrolled in SMCC’s Fire Science Technology program and a Maine Fire Training and Education Department providing hands on firefighter training, Willis said the college is a “logical partner” in the initiative.
Willis said the grant “activities will be training hundreds of folks statewide in a couple of fire safety skill sets.” For example, fire safety education programs such as play safe! be safe! and the National Fire Protection Agency’s injury prevention program, Risk Watch, will be used to spread awareness in schools, from preschool to middle school. The education initiative will partner schools with local fire departments, county and state fire organizations and local and county juvenile fire safety groups.
The response and intervention component of the grant is focused on children who are involved in some form of fire play, whether they are doing it out of curiosity or with the intent to cause harm to a person or property. The fire department will make a referral to a response team, which could be comprised of social and child protective services, mental health professionals and law enforcement.
“Whatever the child needs, we’ll have the resources available for the child and the family,” said Willis.
Pam Tourangeau, Director of York County’s Fire Setter Intervention Program and a licensed clinical professional counselor, said about 95 percent of the referrals that come in from local fire departments go through some sort of fire education program, which is geared developmentally for children between the ages of three and 17.
“We do everything we can to try and gear it toward what the child really needs and we require the parent attend,” she said. “It’s reinforcement at home if the parent is getting the education along with the child.”
Education programs for younger children might include developing and practicing an escape plan, locating smoke detectors in a building and practicing stop, drop and roll. Programs for adolescents are geared toward good decision making and learning about Maine’s arson laws.
Tourangeau, who will serve as interim project director for the new Maine Juvenile Fire Safety program, stressed juveniles involved in the ignition of fires is not just a problem for the fire department or the police department, but rather it is a problem that communities as a whole must address.
Staff Writer
Maine children are playing with fire and statistics show they’re not the only ones getting burned.
According to the Maine State Fire Marshal’s Office, in 2004, fire departments statewide responded to 377 incidents in which juveniles were somehow involved in the ignition of a fire. That year, the incidents resulted in more than $11 million in property loss.
A Fire Prevention and Safety grant, recently awarded to Southern Maine Community College (SMCC) by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), will provide the seed money for a statewide initiative to spread fire safety awareness and provide intervention and support services for at risk juveniles and their families.
The $360,974 grant will strengthen juvenile fire safety collaborations in Androscoggin County, Cumberland County, Kennebec County and York County, while creating partnerships in four more pilot counties or regions.
Richard Taylor, a senior planning and research analyst with the Maine State Fire Marshal’s Office, pointed to the York County Fire Setter Intervention Program as an effective model of a collaboration between the fire service, law enforcement and the mental health community.
“We need to build the capacity to recreate the model you have working well in York [County] and recreate it around the state,” he said.
Taylor said the SMCC grant will help implement a program that will continue on even after a firefighter leaves the service.
Steve Willis, Director of Public Safety Education and Leadership Initiatives at SMCC, said the grant provides funds to hire a full-time program director, a support person and a data assistant to work with the Fire Marshal’s Office.
With more than 100 full-time students enrolled in SMCC’s Fire Science Technology program and a Maine Fire Training and Education Department providing hands on firefighter training, Willis said the college is a “logical partner” in the initiative.
Willis said the grant “activities will be training hundreds of folks statewide in a couple of fire safety skill sets.” For example, fire safety education programs such as play safe! be safe! and the National Fire Protection Agency’s injury prevention program, Risk Watch, will be used to spread awareness in schools, from preschool to middle school. The education initiative will partner schools with local fire departments, county and state fire organizations and local and county juvenile fire safety groups.
The response and intervention component of the grant is focused on children who are involved in some form of fire play, whether they are doing it out of curiosity or with the intent to cause harm to a person or property. The fire department will make a referral to a response team, which could be comprised of social and child protective services, mental health professionals and law enforcement.
“Whatever the child needs, we’ll have the resources available for the child and the family,” said Willis.
Pam Tourangeau, Director of York County’s Fire Setter Intervention Program and a licensed clinical professional counselor, said about 95 percent of the referrals that come in from local fire departments go through some sort of fire education program, which is geared developmentally for children between the ages of three and 17.
“We do everything we can to try and gear it toward what the child really needs and we require the parent attend,” she said. “It’s reinforcement at home if the parent is getting the education along with the child.”
Education programs for younger children might include developing and practicing an escape plan, locating smoke detectors in a building and practicing stop, drop and roll. Programs for adolescents are geared toward good decision making and learning about Maine’s arson laws.
Tourangeau, who will serve as interim project director for the new Maine Juvenile Fire Safety program, stressed juveniles involved in the ignition of fires is not just a problem for the fire department or the police department, but rather it is a problem that communities as a whole must address.
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