Programs from Champaign Fire Department’s campus fire safety education toolbox will be offered as successful best practices in a newly developed course at the National Fire Academy. The National Fire Academy is the country’s pre-eminent federal fire training and education institution. The original purpose of the NFA is to “function as the core of the Nation’s efforts in fire service education—feeding out model programs, curricula, and information.” Deputy Fire Marshal Janet Maupin is in charge of campus fire programming. She coordinates a team of leaders from Champaign Fire, Neighborhood Service Department, City of Urbana and several University of Illinois departments.
NFA’s Campus Fire and Life Safety Course will showcase the popular Fire Factor Academy, a daylong student fire academy designed to encourage leaders in university housing to better understand, and disseminate fire prevention information to peers in campus residence halls, fraternity and sorority houses. Details of how the student fire academy is managed, marketed and its impact will be included. A Fire Factor Video, created by City IT Department, will also be showcased.
Other campus efforts to be highlighted include SUBTRACT STUPIDITY –add smart to the equation fire safety campaign and its development with help from talented School of Art & Design students.
The City’s journey to the passage and implementation of a housing retrofit-sprinkler ordinance on campus and the realization that students did not know how to live in a sprinkler-protected building is traced. The Sprinkler Bowl Game, Champaign Fire Department’s educational creation was then designed to teach the benefits and operations of fire sprinkler systems.