By TCC VPSO Sgt. Nate Becker
In conjunction with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), TCC Public Safety would like to announce our first annual Fire Prevention Week Public Outreach Campaign. The NFPA is a U.S.-based international nonprofit organization devoted to eliminating deaths, injury, property damage, and economic loss due to fire, electrical, and related hazards. As a part of their mission, the NFPA endorses and promotes an annual National Fire Prevention Week which always occurs during the week of October 9th. This year marks the 100-year anniversary of Fire Prevention Week, and this year’s theme is CHARGE into Safety: Lithium Ion Batteries in Your Home. Previous themes have involved preventing cooking fires, installing smoke alarms and carbon monoxide awareness, to name but a few.
In an effort to promote safe and healthy Tribes, all of our officers will be out in force during the week of October 5th through the 11th, and we are asking for your help. Our goal is to get as many officers as we can out into the schools and the communities as we work in conjunction with the NFPA to deliver this year’s message. We will have games and activities for the kids and lots of useful information to share with everyone. Do have an event going on that week? If so, we would love to be a part of it! Don’t hesitate to reach out to one of our officers or Public Safety Manager David Atteberry to see how and when we can bring you this important safety message.
What we need from you are requests for our presence. As we all know, most of our villages don’t currently have a VPSO, and while we diligently work to correct that, please know that we have weekly discussions on how to better utilize our officers and get them out to your villages. Our aim is to visit as many villages as possible during Fire Prevention Week, but we need your help. Please communicate with us on how, when and where we can share this year’s message. We will also be reaching out to Tribal leadership to coordinate as many of these visits as possible.
Our goal is make Fire Prevention Week as successful as we can, but we can’t do it alone. As our program continues to evolve, our mission is to provide more education and more outreach regarding community safety and wellbeing. Like most of rural Alaska, our region knows the pain associated with accidental fires. Many of our communities have felt severe cultural, social and economic impacts from otherwise preventable fires, and we are committed to the prevention and mitigation of those impacts.
We sincerely look forward to seeing you the week of October 5th-11th as we all work together to keep us safe from the devastating effects of fires.
You can reach the TCC Public Safety Department by calling, 907-452-8251 ext. 2068.