Response Vs. Preparation

Response perspective is looking at how we can mitigate the problem while in scene. It focuses on the immediate actions to extinguish the fire and protect lives and property. What does response perspective look like? In a response perspective, firefighters are focused in responding to emergency calls, extinguishing/stabilizing/containing fires, and making sure that firefighters and the public stay safe.

Prevention perspective changes to what we can actively do to try and reduce the number of incidents happening through education, safety standards, and code enforcement. Fire safety training, building inspections, and promoting fire safety equipment (such as smoke detectors and sprinklers in commercial buildings). If we provide public education at community events, then we can be able to help prevent incidents while providing education as to why we are promoting those things. Now, prevention is a group effort, and we can provide education and information until we are blue in the face. However, it also takes the public, the homeowner, and the business owners to implement items (outside of code regulations) in order to have this prevention be more successful.