By Marcy Ost, Admin Assistant
We’re pretty excited! We have our website AND social media pages! When we started daydreaming about starting social media, we knew who our target audience was: you, the fire departments across North Dakota. The social media pages are for you, the departments. We hope you can use our content to help with your outreach efforts. We’ll be posting information regarding Community Risk Reduction initiatives, our office, what we are up to, and what we can do for you. We’ll also post things you can share on your pages. Remember, there’s no substitute for original content, but having some backup on slow days never hurts!
So, here’s your assignment - follow us. We’ll follow you back!
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Community Risk Reduction
The central community risk reduction (CRR) initiative the State Fire Marshal’s office is pursuing is communication. We’re working hard to connect partners and get helpful information to the departments. With that goal in mind, we’ve started a monthly kitchen table meeting of CRR/fire prevention folks from departments across the state. We recently held our second meeting where Travis Olson from West Fargo presented their Community Health Coalition, working to mitigate lift assists. We’re meeting on the third Friday of the month at 9 a.m. central time. If you’re interested in joining us or getting on the email list of the random stuff we share, let us know, and we’ll add you!
Something else we’re working on is the State Risk Assessment (SRA). It’s a big project but exciting and interesting. There is one national statistic with ND showing high in the national rankings, but I don’t think any of you will be surprised! We rank 4th nationally in the percentage of all-volunteer and mostly volunteer departments.
North Dakota shows significantly lower numbers in the career and mostly career categories and higher numbers in the volunteer category. This is likely attributed to the state’s rank of 47th in population, which directly correlates to more volunteer departments protecting sparsely populated rural areas.
Incident Reports
I've mentioned our website before, and I'll continue doing so, but there is a great department resource. On the Statistics page, you’ll not only find the monthly and annual statistical reports, but you’ll also see “Incident Reports by Department Year-to-Date." It’s an Excel report we’ll be updating monthly. You can sort by any of the columns to find how your department lines up with other ND departments and ensure our numbers align with yours.
Grant Opportunity
Nicholas and Zachary Burt Memorial Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Prevention Grant Program. This program aims to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning of children and the elderly in dwelling units and other facilities by providing funding to state, local, and tribal governments that support the installation of CO alarms and training and public education programs to promote the health and public safety of citizens throughout the United States.
This grant is being administered by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). On a recent webinar, a representative said the CPSC doesn’t often administer grants and asked for patience as the process might be clunky. There is help with applying if you are interested here.