Risk
Guardian - Summer 2005PUBLISHED IN THE INTEREST OF SAFETY IN ONTARIO
Send your comments and submissions to:
Fire Marshal’s Public Fire Safety Council,
Carol Gravelle, Editor
5775 Yonge Street,
7th Floor,
Toronto, ON M2M 4J1
Tel: 416-325-3138
carol.gravelle@jus.gov.on.ca
The new Canadian version of Risk Watch® is expected to be available for use
in Canadian schools by this September. Risk Watch is a comprehensive injury
prevention program for students in pre-kindergarten through Grade 8. Developed
by the National Fire Protection Association in the United States, Risk Watch
covers eight injury prevention areas, including motor vehicle safety, bike and
pedestrian safety and poisoning prevention. It teaches children skills and
strategies to make positive choices about personal injury prevention behaviours.
In 2003, the Ontario Fire Marshal’s Public Fire Safety Council partnered with SMARTRISK to revise the curriculum to include Canadian statistics, legislation, information, resources and education content, and to produce a French language version.
Being able to make smart decisions is an important part of injury prevention. Central to the Canadian version is the “Look First, Think Twice, Choose Smart” decision-making process that promotes the use of critical thinking skills in all grade levels to encourage students to make educated decisions about injury prevention by assessing the risk in situations and using their knowledge to make decisions.
For example, in grades 3-4, students act as reporters to examine choking, suffocation and strangulation risks in familiar fairy tales. Students first reflect on their prior knowledge about what it means to, and what items could cause, choking, suffocation or strangulation, through creating and playing a concentration game. Students discuss strategies to prevent injuries from the items identified. Students then work with their teacher and classmates to analyze a modified version of Jack and the Beanstalk for risks and write a newspaper report. The last step for students is to analyze their own choice of fairy tale and write a report for a class newspaper. They share their stories with other students and classes and reflect on new learning.
What is different about the Canadian version?
For more information, please contact Bev Gilbert at the Ontario Fire Marshal’s
Office, at Bev.Gilbert@jus.gov.on.ca or 416-325-3178.
Reprinted from SMARTRISK’s newsletter “Heads Up!”
New facilities at the Ontario Fire College in Gravenhurst, ON will make the college a premier emergency management-training centre for firefighters and emergency responders in Ontario.
The expanded facilities provide the resources for the college to become a centre of excellence in the areas of chemical/biological/radiological/nuclear response, and provide for inter-agency training of firefighters, police officers, ambulance personnel and other persons who respond to emergency situations or disasters.
The new Emergency Management Centre encompasses a new fire hall complex incorporating an Emergency Operations Centre that facilitates inter-agency training exercises, five new vehicle bays for fire trucks and emergency vehicles, a classroom providing for the timely linking of knowledge-based learning and practical, hands-on learning, and equipment for both training and emergency responses. A new library resource centre was also constructed, providing student-learners with a real college library environment.
Pictured at the left: Ontario Fire College Librarian Judy Humphries explains new resources added to the college’s library to Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Monte Kwinter. At the right, firefighters demonstrate decontamination techniques during the Emergency Management Centre opening on April 20.
The Fire Marshal’s Public Fire Safety Council presented the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs with a cheque for $15,000 at the OAFC’s conference in May. Pictured below are (back row, left to right): Council Vice-Chair Doug Crawford; Michael Bache, Canadian Tire Garrison; Dave Lisle, Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA); Daniel Langlois, Canadian Standards Association (CSA); (front row, left to right): Jim Rotz, Kidde; Fire Marshal and Council Chair Bernard Moyle; and then OAFC President Rob Browning.
The SummerSmart campaign, aimed at raising public awareness about home, cottage and camping safety throughout the summer months, was launched by 107 fire departments at 182 Canadian Tire stores across Ontario on May 14. The campaign kicked off with firefighters holding a number of interactive activities and distributing safety information at Canadian Tire stores across the province.
An initiative of the Fire Marshal’s Public Fire Safety Council, SummerSmart consists of a variety of public education resources and materials delivered by local fire departments. This year’s SummerSmart campaign provides safety tips on a variety of issues, including safe barbecuing; proper use and storage of fuels; recognizing and preventing carbon monoxide hazards in the home and cottage; and cottage and camping safety.
SummerSmart safety information is available at www.safetyinfo.ca. The campaign also includes downloadable safety lesson plans for Ontario teachers (available at www.firesafetycouncil.com/teachers/index.htm) and safety kits distributed to communities via fire departments.
Sponsors of this year’s SummerSmart campaign include:
TSSA; Garrison (exclusively at Canadian
Tire); Energizer Canada;
Direct Energy Essential Home Services;
Kidde and
State Farm Insurance.
Bicycle safety facts:
Information courtesy of Karen Cook, Co-Chair, Kawartha Lakes Risk Watch Coalition
Pictured above: Bicycle helmets are only effective if they fit properly.
The Canadian Safe Communities Network has a listserv that anyone can join.
Subscribe to the listserv and receive regular postings from other network members and partners, as well as the option to post your own requests for information, etc.
For instructions about how to subscribe, visit the Safe Communities Foundation web site at www.safecommunities.ca and click on ‘Safe Communities Resources’.
The inside of a car can heat up quickly to temperatures that could hurt or kill a child.
The temperature inside a parked car can exceed 50°C (122°F) in 10-20 minutes on a typical sunny summer day in Canada. Within 40 minutes, it will get so hot that a child inside the car could die. Opening the window slightly does not keep the temperature at a safe level.
Young children—especially infants—are three to five times more sensitive to heat than adults. Young children have small body sizes and do not regulate their body temperatures as quickly as adults. Rising temperatures inside a car can cause a child to suffer from heat stress, dehydration and even shock.
To keep children safe in cars this summer, it is recommended to:
Reprinted from Safe Kids Canada’s web site.
How is Canada doing?
Risk for children are influenced by the following factors:
Top 5 Causes of Hospitalizations Due to Unintentional Injury Among Children in Canada:*
1. Unintentional falls (47%)
2. Motor vehicle collisions (10%)
3. Struck by objects, persons, or flying objects (9%)
4. Cycling (8%)
5. Natural and environmental factors (3%)
*The above percentages refer to the Canadian Institute for Health Information
(CIHI) National Trauma Registry Hospital Injury Admissions Report, and are for
children under the age of 15 years (CIHI).
Top 5 Causes of Deaths Due to Unintentional Injury Among Children in Ontario:*
1. Motor vehicle collisions (36%)
2. Drowning and Suffocation (22%)
3. Fire and flames (7%)
4. Cycling (5%)
5. Unintentional falls (3%)
*The above percentages refer to the Canadian Institute for Health Information
(CIHI) Ontario Trauma Registry Injury Deaths Report and are for children under
the age of 15 years.
Information reprinted from
The Injury
Prevention Research Office web site.
The 13th annual Fire and Life Safety Educators’ Conference, entitled “Feel the Warmth”, will be held in Simcoe, ON from November 16-18.
Conference highlights will include: a pre-conference seminar on the new Risk Watch®; increasing fire safety in vulnerable occupancies; performance measurement and benchmarking; fire safety for persons with Alzheimer’s Disease; fire safety for persons with disabilities; farm safety; working with the media; making a difference in the community—your role; effective presentation techniques; and much more.
Conference registration costs $175 prior to October 24, 2005 and $200 after. Accommodation is available at the Simcoe Travelodge and costs $80 per night plus applicable taxes.
For more information about the conference, contact the North Shore Fire Safety Education Committee at 519-426-4115, ext. 425.
The Office of the Fire Marshal produced two television public service announcements (PSAs) last November to raise public awareness of the importance of safe cooking practices and smoke alarms for the prevention and detection of home fires.
Fire departments are encouraged to send copies of the PSAs to their local television stations and request they be used. Contact Gina Pontikas at 416-325-3155 to get copies of the PSAs. The PSAs can be viewed at http://www.firesafetycouncil.com/english/pubsafet/videofiles.htm.
Pictured above are clips of television public service announcements about safe cooking practices available from the Office of the Fire Marshal and the Fire Marshal's Public Fire Safety Council.
|
||||||||||||||||||
