Page 10 - InCommand Volume 36

Volunteer Fire Departments and
Community Fire Safety Education
Assistant Chief Matthew McBirney, MPA, OFE, OFC – Aurora Fire Department
Author Bio
Matthew McBirney, MPA, OFE, OFC
Assistant Chief Matthew McBirney started his fire service career over 25 years ago with the Edinburg Township Volunteer Fire Department in Portage County. He has been with the Aurora
Fire Department since 1997 serving as
a Firefighter/Paramedic, Lieutenant, Captain, and now Assistant Fire Chief. He earned an Associate of Applied Science in Fire Technology from Cuyahoga Community College, a Bachelor of Science in Fire and Safety Engineering Technology from the University of Cincinnati, and a Master of Public Administration from Anna Maria College. Assistant Chief McBirney is a graduate of the Ohio Fire Executive Program class 9, and holds the Ohio Fire Chief credential. His State of Ohio certifications include Firefighter II, Paramedic, Fire Instructor, Live Fire Instructor, EMS CE Instructor, and Fire Safety Inspector. He has served as shift training officer, department training coordinator, and teaches in
the University of Akron fire training program. In 2002, he enlisted in the Navy Reserve where he was assigned to Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment based in Akron, and was deployed in support of the Global War on Terrorism to Iraq in 2005. Assistant Chief McBirney manages
the fire prevention bureau and is second-in-command of the Aurora Fire Department. Matthew resides in Aurora with his wife Ruby and their sons Patrick and Christopher.
Volunteer fire departments face challenges in recruitment, retention, training, and funding their organizations at levels that enable them to meet the basic fire suppression, rescue, and emergency medical service needs of their communities. Without the financial resources enjoyed by career or even part time paid fire departments,
fire prevention and public safety education programs might seem like an impractical luxury that is out of reach. In reality, there is nothing more practical and worthwhile than preventing the loss of life, property, and injuries by providing fire safety education to our communities.
How can volunteer fire departments overcome resource challenges to expand their services to include robust prevention and education programs?
In pursuit of the answer to this question, I contacted Angela
Potter, a Fire Safety Educator with
the Fire Prevention Bureau of our State Fire Marshal’s office. Previously, Angela was a member of Granger Township Fire & Rescue in Medina County. Their Chief wanted to pursue community fire safety education and convinced the trustees to allocate a small amount of funding to begin providing fire safety education in
their local schools. Angela, assisted
by a trained therapy dog who could demonstrate Stop, Drop, & Roll among other things, began delivering regular fire safety training sessions to elementary school children in the local schools. The presentations were so well received that the principal and teachers wrote letters to the trustees asking for continuation and expansion of the program. The trustees also received positive feedback from residents and realized that younger families with school children were now an important
demographic group with a reason to vote for fire levy renewals. The initial modest allocation of funding for public fire safety education was a seed that took root and grew into a valuable service to the community.
However, what if even the seed money for a public fire safety education program is lacking? The Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grants (SAFER) program, administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), while most known for assisting fire departments to add first responders, also has allocations for funding fire prevention and education personnel, and the quotas available for these positions have been traditionally under-utilized.
Another program, The
Fire Prevention and Safety (FP&S) Grants are part of the Assistance to Firefighters Grants (AFG) program, also administered by FEMA. Rather than fund staffing, these grants support projects that enhance the safety of
the public and firefighters from fire and related hazards. The Hudson
Fire Department, a volunteer fire department in Summit County, used
a $47,000 Fire Prevention & Safety grant to fund a Safe Seniors Program, a community risk reduction project aimed at 65 and over seniors living independently in their own homes. The Hudson Fire Department was
able to provide reflective address numbers, residential key lock boxes, smoke alarms, and bed shaker / strobe devices that alert the hearing impaired when the smoke alarm is activated. The program was so popular and the unsatisfied demand so great, that they applied again the following year and were awarded an additional $46,300 for the same safety equipment plus carbon monoxide alarms that were not
10 InCommand OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 • www.ohiofirechiefs.org