Over the years we have found the area of Prevention and Education to have grown by leaps and bounds. Whereas fire fighting requires a reaction to an event that has taken place, in prevention we try to eliminate the event through the education of our citizens. Our prevention staff has grown from one inspector a few years ago, to four inspectors at present. Some of their duties are as follows: to conduct inspections and drills of all businesses, schools, city owned buildings and public meeting places in the city. We also conduct chimney inspections upon request.

Fire Prevention Week
We are also very active in Fire Prevention Week, activities that include talks and videos about fire safety in our schools, tours of our stations, and visits to our local businesses where our equipment is on display. This year we have added to our Fire Prevention Equipment, a Fire Safety Trailer, where we teach the public how to escape from a smoke filled building. We are currently staying busy with this piece of equipment within the city and in other jurisdictions.

This year we were active at the City’s Seafood Festival, and programs sponsored by the Library. Although Fire Prevention Week is our busiest week, these activities occur at all times throughout the year. At all of these activities, we give out prevention materials: hats for the children, educational literature to our citizens, and updating our educational films at the stations. Even though there are no statistics on fires that didn’t occur due to these programs, we're sure that you will agree that even if the number is a low one, we have provided an invaluable service to our citizens.