Fire-Safe Seniors program

The Fire-Safe Seniors program helps you plan and implement fire safety interventions for the high-risk group of older adults. It can be used by organizations that serve seniors at the national, state or community level, such as fire departments, meal delivery programs, home companion groups, senior center associations, and many other groups.

The program, sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and USFA, consists of these fire safety elements:

1. Home assessments to determine the need for smoke alarms and identify any existing fire hazards in older adults’ homes.
2. Smoke alarm installation to ensure participants’ homes are adequately equipped with working smoke alarms.
3. Education to provide in-person fire safety messages and tips to older adults, their family members and caregivers.
4. Follow-up to determine if alarms are still working; to assess any changes in the older adults’ fire safety knowledge, attitudes and behaviors; and to see if any fires have occurred.

Fire-Safe Seniors toolkit

A toolkit is available to help you implement the program. It contains:

• An implementation guide with helpful information for planning and running a comprehensive fire safety program for seniors. (PDF 7 MB | PDF Press 9 MB)
• Three different training curricula:
  
  • Training of trainers curriculum. (Facilitator’s Guide – PDF MB, PDF Press 9 MB | Presentation – PPT 3 MB)
  • A four-hour curriculum to train your staff or volunteers who will conduct home assessments and education; including an optional session on smoke alarm installation. (Facilitator’s Guide – PDF 6 MB, PDF Press 9 MB | Presentation, PPT 3 MB)
  • A two-hour curriculum to train your staff or volunteers who will only conduct education. (Facilitator’s Guide – PDF 3 MB, PDF Press 6 MB | Presentation, PPT 2 MB)
• Tools and handouts for conducting the home assessments, education, smoke alarm installations and process evaluation.

Tools

• Education tool for discussing fire safety (PDF 413 KB | PDF Press 465 KB)
• Home assessment tool for evaluating smoke alarms and escape barriers (PDF 978 KB | PDF Press 971 KB)
• Educational messages clipboard sticker (PDF 188 KB | PDF Press 184 KB)
• Educational messages pocket reminder card (PDF 197 KB | PDF Press 193 KB)

Handouts

• Smoke alarms refrigerator magnet (PDF 263 KB | PDF Press 263 KB)
• “How to prevent fires in your home” flyer: English (PDF 296 KB) | Spanish (PDF 297 KB) | English and Spanish (PDF Press 649 KB)
• Smoke alarms and escape planning flyer: English (PDF 676 KB) | Spanish (PDF 684 KB) | English and Spanish (PDF Press 1 MB)
• Emergency numbers telephone sticker (PDF 56 KB | PDF Press 53 KB)

For more information about the “Fire-Safe Seniors” toolkit, please email FEMA-FireisEveryonesFight@fema.dhs.gov.