Many teenagers do some cooking at home and most soon move out on their own--making the teen years an ideal time to learn the essentials of safe cooking. Presenting at an education session at NFPA’s Conference & Expo, Chris Slosser and Denise Wallace of the Ontario Fire Marshal Office outlined how they created a cooking fire safety program designed specifically for teens.
Slosser called out that cooking is the number one cause of home fires for all age groups, and the number one cause of home fire deaths. With this in mind, Slosser and Wallace designed a teen education program with a view to “fire safe cooking for today and tomorrow.”
To inform the program design, they conducted multiple focus groups including high school teachers, teens, and fire service educators. The focus groups provided valuable input to key program elements such as having fire service educators deliver the program through classroom visits given students’ interest in guest speakers. Slosser and Wallace then asked teachers to review a draft of the program and had fire service educators run a pilot in schools.
The education program is based on an interactive presentation including videos illustrating the leading causes of cooking fires as well as information on smoke alarms and home fire escape planning. It not only includes essentials like an educator’s guide, teaching outline and lesson plan, but encourages fire safety educators to localize the program by drawing upon incidents of cooking fires in their local communities.
Slosser and Wallace promoted the program through letters sent directly to schools, an article in the Ontario Teachers Federation magazine, and teacher professional development days.
Designed in 2010, the program will soon be reviewed and updated as needed to ensure the safety messages continue to inform teens for safe cooking today and tomorrow.