CRR Radio

In this episode we focus on using data to help predict where home fires may occur and technology to help detect them in vacant properties. This episode also ties into an earlier one Data and Smoke Alarms in New Orleans that you might be interested in. Using data to predict fires e start by talking with Jon Jay, a doctoral student at the Harvard School of Public Health, and author of the article "Can Algorithms Predict House Fires." In this article, and on this podcast, Jay talks about how it is possible to use data to predict where house fires are more likely to occur in a city so that the fire department can better focus its prevention and home safety visits, and the results are astounding. By randomly visiting neighborhoods, it was determined that a fire department would probably visit 20% of the homes likely to have a fire. However, by using a data-driven approach, this percentage jumped to 71% resulting in a much more effective and efficient use of staffing. The data that was used is from publicly available sources, and by bringing together a variety of data sources it is possible to refine the model significantly and really hone in on the geographic areas of the city as well as the different property types. Using technology to detect fires We then have a conversation with Nathan Armentrout from Eidolon who invented CASPER - Continuous Autonomous Solar Powered Event Reporter. This is a device that is installed in vacant homes and listens for the sound of a smoke alarm in the building then sends out an alert by cellular signal to the cloud. This device came about as a result of a hackathon sponsored by Louisville, Kentucky, where there was a problem of fires in vacant homes. These fires were creating significant risks to the other homes around them because they were not being detected until they were well developed instead of in their early stages. The city put the problem forward to the Level 1 hackerspace, and competition was put together to find a solution. Armentrout developed CASPER which has been successfully pilot tested in Louisville and he is now rolling out in beta to other cities.

In this episode of CRR Radio we talk with National Fire Academy Superintendent Tonya Hoover about the role of CRR at NFA and her views on how the fire service is coming to embrace CRR across the nation. For more information on Community Risk Reduction, be sure to visit The Vision 20/20 Project at http://www.strategicfire.org/crr

New Orleans Fire Department had been installing smoke alarms in people's homes for years, but they were looking for a more effective way to do it. By working in partnership with the city's Office of Performance and Accountability, they were able to develop a more focused approach using publicly available data. Listen to Chief McConnell and Director Wise explain how they went from installing 800 smoke alarms to 18,000 using data. Watch the video produced by the U.S. Census Bureau on this program https://youtu.be/4VJ-pfm3nrE New Orleans partnered with enigma.io to help build this model. Learn more about their project and how it can help you at http://labs.enigma.io/smoke-signals/ For more information on Community Risk Reduction, visit The Vision 20/20 Project at http://www.strategicfire.org/crr

Learn more about the challenges of providing CRR in an all-volunteer fire protection district in Washington state from Chief Arnold Baker and jackson Hole, Wyoming, from Battalion Chief/Fire Marshal Kathy Clay where the challenges can swing between wildland fires in the summer and 30-below temperatures in the winter. For more information on CRR, be sure to visit The Vision 20/20 Project at http://www.strategicfire.org/crrradio.

Assistant Chief Frank Blackley and recently-promoted Battalion Chief Chris Walker talk about how they are doing CRR at the Wilmington, North Carolina Fire Department. In this conversation we get two unique perspectives from Chief Blackley as a department senior officer, and Chief Walker, who was recently promoted from Captain and was able to give us the view from the right seat of an engine. We talk about CRR and fire fighter safety, working with partners, the importance of data and so much more. If you are looking for more information on CRR, be sure to check out the CRR Portal at The Vision 20/20 Project's website, http://www.strategicfire.org.

In this episode of CRR Radio we talk with Poudre Fire Authority Fire Chief Tom DeMint about how they use CRR in their operations. We also continue to explore the relationship between CRR and a department's ISO rating and CPSE accreditation and how it helped them take a look at how they were operating.

On this episode we talk with Rogers Fire Chief Tom Jenkins, who is also first vice president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs about how they do CRR and the role it played in their ISO rating and CPSE accreditation.

In this episode of CRR Radio we talk with Deputy Fire Marshal Deanna Harrington from the Arvada Fire Protection District about how they are using CRR. We then talk with Sara Wood, NFIRS State Program Manager with the Kansas State Fire Marshal's office about data and how it can be used in CRR. For more information on CRR and The Vision 20/20 Project, be sure to visit us at http://www.strategicfire.org.

Listen to Part 2 of our conversation with Martin Ward-White from the West Midlands Fire Service in the UK talking about how they use Integrated Risk Management.

Martin Ward-White from the West Midlands Fire Service in the UK talks with CRR Radio about their approach to Integrated Risk Management in the first part of a two-part conversation.