CRR Week FAQs

Our goal is to raise awareness among the fire service about the role of CRR and how any department, no matter what type or where it is located, can use the concepts of CRR to make your community and department safer.

CRR Week is a great opportunity to help raise awareness among members of your department about the value of CRR in making your community safer which also translates into fire fighter safety as well.

The idea for CRR Week came up when individuals from various fire departments from across the country were sitting around having coffee This small group is serving as the catalyst to get it going for the first time, but the idea is that this is something that will be acknowledged all across the country.

CRR Week is locally-driven, a grass-roots effort. No one knows the risks in your community better than you do, so you can design your own campaign to meet your local needs. While we are suggesting that each day could focus on a different E, it is just that – a suggestion. It also depends upon what resources you have available to you. For example, volunteer departments may choose to use the weekend since that is when their members may be available and people are at home to do home safety visits.

Each day of the week will have a different focus of one of the five E’s:

• Monday – Education. To kick off CRR Week, since it is Martin Luther King Day and a Community Day of Service, we are suggesting that communities use this as a time to go into homes in their communities and install smoke alarms.
• Tuesday – Engineering. This could be an opportunity to have crews go into the community and learn more about the design of buildings or fire protection systems and how they play a role in protecting a building and impact fire fighter safety.
• Wednesday – Enforcement. This could be an opportunity for crews to accompany a fire inspector and learn more about how inspections make a community safer and are for the benefit of everyone – the fire department, the community, the property owner.
• Thursday – Economic Incentive. This could be partnering with a local business who is willing to provide a supply of life safety devices (i.e., smoke alarms, car seats, bicycle helmets) to implement in your community.
• Friday – Emergency Response. This could be a day to inform your community about data related to emergency response services in your agency. What are the most common emergencies being mitigated? What is the average response time? Take a look at agency data to determine areas of improvement and discuss with personnel.
• Saturday/Sunday – These are days that volunteer departments can use in promoting any one of the five E’s in their community.

Encourage fire service personnel to take time to take “CRR Essentials” on IFSTA Resource One.  Have every member sign a pledge to actively look for opportunities to incorporate CRR into their service delivery and implement interventions.

• Yes, you can! Click here and you will find model language for a proclamation that you can submit to your governor, city or state. Proclamations are great ways to get attention on an issue and can also help to get media attention.