Public Education

The public education branch of the Providence Fire Prevention Bureau is responsible for teaching public safety to the citizens of Providence and also to many of the people who work in our city each day.

The public educators from the Fire Prevention Bureau use both new and older proven methods to accomplish our goals. Each year we attend many training seminars in an effort to improve our abilities to accomplish these goals. The two current public educators are both fervent advocates for public safety. They are available to speak at businesses, organizations, schools and special events. There is no charge for this service.

Some of the methods that are used to spread our public safety messages to the citizens of, and visitors to, Providence.

• Smoke Trailer/Safety House - Towed to schools and events in the city. Teaches people how to prevent fires and how to escape from a fire.
  
• Public and Private Schools - We speak at schools throughout the school year.
  
• Parent Teacher Organization Meetings - We attend many of these meetings to speak, hand out safety brochures in English and Spanish, and we also provide free smoke detectors to parents.
  
• Community Events - We attend many community events we bring our smoke trailer, safety brochures and free smoke detectors.
  
• Business Education - We respond to the needs of local businesses by offering safety training for their employees, evacuation planning assistance and fire drills (regular fire drills and obstructed exit fire drills).
  
• Public Access Television - We have taped many fire and public safety programs that we were able to air on Public Access Television on Channels 13 and 18. Some of these programs were done in Spanish in order to reach the large Hispanic community in Providence.
  
• Fire Extinguisher Training - Using the Bullex Hot Shot fire extinguisher training system we have been going to businesses and organizations to provide fire extinguisher training for their employees or members.
  
• 911 Phone Call Simulator - This is a device that teaches young children the proper way to call in an emergency to a 911 operator. This device was brought to 30 elementary schools in Providence in the 2009-2010 school year.
  
• Sparky the Fire Dog - We use a professional "Sparky the Fire Dog" costume, from NFPA, to help teach fire safety to pre-schoolers and other young children. Sparky always steals the show and the hearts of both the children and adults that are present!
  
• Mentoring Program - Each year we partner with the Providence Metropolitan high school, the "Met", to mentor their students that are interested in the fire department.
  
• Public Safety Brochures - We offer a wide variety of public safety related brochures free to the public. These brochures are in English and Spanish. We try to order new and different brochures when they become available.
  
• Safety Materials for children - We hand out many safety related items to children as we travel throughout the city. Among these items are plastic fire helmets, coloring books & crayons, pencils, rulers, refrigerator magnets, etc.
  
• Radio Latina - In an effort to spread our safety messages to the Spanish community we have spoken on Radio Latina with the aid of an interpreter.

To invite us to speak at your school or business, call our office at 243-6056.