Community Fire Risk Reduction: Longitudinal Assessment for HomeSafe Fire Prevention Program in Canada

Samar Al-Hajj (), Larry Thomas (), Shelley Morris, Joseph Clare, Charles Jennings, Chris Biantoro, Len Garis and Ian Pike
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Samar Al-Hajj: Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut 11-0236, Lebanon
Larry Thomas: City of Surrey Fire Service, Surrey, BC V3W 4P1, Canada
Shelley Morris: City of Surrey Fire Service, Surrey, BC V3W 4P1, Canada
Joseph Clare: UWA Law School, The University of Western Australia, M253, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
Charles Jennings: Department of Security, Fire, and Emergency Management, John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York, 524 West 59th Street, New York, NY 10019, USA
Chris Biantoro: City of Surrey Fire Service, Surrey, BC V3W 4P1, Canada
Len Garis: British Columbia Injury Research and Prevention Unit, British Columbia Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Vancouver, BC V6H 3V4, Canada
Ian Pike: British Columbia Injury Research and Prevention Unit, British Columbia Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Vancouver, BC V6H 3V4, Canada

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 14, 1-18

Abstract: (1) Background: Residential fires represent the third leading cause of unintentional injuries globally. This study aims to offer an overview and a longitudinal evaluation of the HomeSafe program implemented in Surrey in 2008 and to assess its effectiveness in mitigating fire-related outcomes. (2) Methods: Data were collected over a 12-year period (2008–2019). Assessed outcomes comprised frequency of fire incidents, residential fires, casualties, functioning smoke alarms, and contained fires. The effectiveness of each initiative was determined by comparing the specific intervention group outcome and the city-wide outcome to the pre-intervention period. (3) Results: This study targeted 120,349 households. HomeSafe achieved overwhelming success in decreasing fire rates (−80%), increasing functioning smoke alarms (+60%), increasing the percentage of contained fires (+94%), and decreasing fire casualties (−40%). The study findings confirm that the three most effective HomeSafe initiatives were firefighters’ visits of households, inspections and installations of smoke alarms, and verifications of fire crew alarms at fire incidents. Some initiatives were less successful, including post-door hangers (+12%) and package distribution (+15%). (4) Conclusions: The HomeSafe program effectively decreased the occurrence and magnitude of residential fires. Lessons learned should be transferred to similar contexts to implement an evidence-based, consistent, and systematic approach to sustainable fire prevention initiatives.

Keywords: residential fires; risk management; intervention strategies; longitudinal study; injury prevention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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