Jose Escobedo	Charles Tobias	Jonathan Chew

The Fresno Fire Department has identified the need to utilize progressive outreach methods to educate the community on fire safety issues in hopes of positively impacting fire fatalities and property loss. The department’s outreach plan is designed to take a three pronged approach utilizing:

• Public Service Announcements airing in local movie theaters, television, and community events.

• Progressive signage campaign utilizing City of Fresno buses, billboards, and community calendars. Additionally, the "Helmets are Cool" program pro-actively works to reduce head injuries, and serves to effectively brand the department’s logo.

• Poignant safety messaging during media coverage of fire incidents.

The department’s PSA campaign in which public service announcements are created for all Fresno movie theaters, television networks, and Spanish and Hmong radio with fire and life safety messages targeted for a particular time of year. These timely life-saving messages dovetail media coverage of seasonal fire safety issues. This year, the department’s life-saving safety messages reached an estimated four million viewers.

The progressive signage campaign delivering the department’s safety message uses a number of innovative delivery methods. The first method involves using city transit buses to deliver both passengers and fire safety messages. Four buses are completely wrapped to give them the appearance of an engine, featuring safety messages, and local firefighters. Secondly, safety messages are appearing on billboards in areas of the city, which have been identified as target areas. Lastly, the "Helmets are Cool" program, where every child who is seen riding their bike or skating without a helmet is given a free one by a firefighter. To date over 4,000 helmets have been given away.

Using the media as a conduit to deliver poignant safety messages is critical to any fire prevention effort. The department utilizes a PIO team to ensure its message is delivered to area residents. Each PIO achieves the goal of delivering a specific safety message by ensuring the following questions answered:

• Identify your audiences.
• Identify how best to increase awareness of a safety program.
• Identify how best to build support for your safety message.

Lastly, the public information office ensures every news release is a succinct account of each fire incident and is written as a news article following the "5 W's and H" format. That is, the who, what, where, why, when, and how of the story. Fresno Fire Department news releases are also used to publicize events or programs, announce upcoming activities or a new initiative, or report relevant fire service news.