The most important component of community risk reduction (CRR) is strategic contact with the public. A strategic contact consists or much more than handing out stickers or plastic hats at the mall. The strategic contact is a contact made that meets the objectives of the communities CRR plan, and is immediately beneficial to the person contacted. This can most effectively happen in fire department home visits.
The purpose of the home visit is to make residents and home owners aware of any fire hazards that may be present in the home, and ensure that smoke and CO alarms are installed. These visits and reports should be considered confidential. It is not the intent of the home visit to "punish" the resident, or cause problems within their community.
NFPA 1452, Guide for Training Fire Service Personnel to Conduct Community Risk Reduction, outlines some basic factors for conducting home visits and provides an example home visit form. This information and form can be found in Chapter 11 and Annex A of the document. The form example provided is basic. A Google search will turn up multiple home visit articles and resources. However, there are two that are ready-made, and freely available that I would recommend.
Fire-Ed also offers a free, 5-part e-mail series that provides a blueprint for bringing proven fire and life safety education to your community. You can sign up for this, here --> http://bit.ly/FireEdBlueprint
