Clarendon County Fire Rescue promotes Community Risk Reduction Week 2022

CLARENDON COUNTY - Community Risk Reduction Week will take place Jan. 17-23.

CRR week begins on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a National Day of Service.

As Clarendon County Fire Rescue continues to prepare for emergency response by providing resources that include personnel, training, equipment and apparatus, we are also committed to being a leading source of risk reduction. A Community Risk Assessment of call types, development of a CRR plan, implementation of the plan and the subsequent evaluation of the plan are factors in successful CRR.

Our CRR plan will set goals based on identified risk, establish programs and provide resources that include personnel, funding, time and community partners. More simply stated by Brent Faulkner of Virtual CRR, "How can we keep bad things from happening to individuals, to our community and to ourselves, and when it does, how do we keep it small or from getting out of control?"

During CRR Week, we will highlight the 5 E's of Community Risk Reduction, and the first one on Monday is Education and ends with Emergency Response on Friday.

EDUCATION - Fire and Life Safety Education has been an essential part of CRR for a long time. How it is delivered has and will continue to change at many levels. Although most familiar topics remain, such as smoke alarms, cooking safety, escape planning and proper fire extinguisher use, our department now has more opportunities with information on medical responses. We offered some information to the general public in the past, and we are now better able to target specific needs such as falls and begin to reduce the number of calls of that type. With help from community partners, we will continue to reach out and provide resources focused on the at-risk population of Clarendon County for a safe and healthy community.

ENGINEERING - Systems that require engineering offer a tremendous amount of safety to the buildings we work in, places we visit, schools and homes. Electrical systems, building materials and designs, suppression systems and communication technologies are some of the systems we may take for granted. Plans for new construction and upgrades to existing buildings are reviewed to ensure that all systems are compliant with current standards.

Engineering's impact is evident in many ways in our community, from engineered systems in building construction, suppression systems and communication to more common items like smoke alarms, car seats and bicycle helmets. CCFR also uses modern technology and design to make our job safer and provide service with less risk.

ENFORCEMENT - CCFR uses a combination of International Codes as amended by South Carolina, National Standards, state laws and regulations and local ordinances to create and maintain safe businesses and buildings. Plans review, acceptance testing and annual inspections help ensure the community, first responders and property owners are exposed to the least amount of risk in fire and life safety matters.

ECONOMIC INCENTIVE - Partnering with businesses and organizations to provide smoke and carbon monoxide alarm installations, hard-of-hearing alarms, home safety visits, fire extinguisher training and complementary fire and life safety classes with printed materials is a vital resource of Community Risk Reduction.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE - A Community Risk Assessment of call types will help set goals based on identified risk. We prepare for response to those emergencies by providing resources to include personnel, training, equipment and apparatus because we cannot prevent all Emergency Responses. The Community Risk Assessment data will guide us toward programs and resources that will reduce the severity and number of Emergency Responses for a more effective reduction of risk to our community and first responders.

For more information on CCFR, please log onto www.clarendonfirerescue.com or check out its Facebook page at Clarendon County Fire Rescue. You can also get additional information on Twitter and Instagram.