Contact: Ed Comeau Publisher Campus Firewatch www.campus-firewatch.com 413-323-6002 (tel) 413-896-5718 (cell) ecomeau@campus-firewatch.com	Contact: Shawn Longerich Executive Director People’s Burn Foundation www.PeoplesBurnFoundation.org   877-814-2024 (tel) 371-695-4284 (cell) slongerich@peoplesburnfoundation.org

Landmark study identifies the vital “knowledge gap” of students when it comes to burn and fire safety

Students were unaware of some of the most basic steps to take to save their lives in the event of a fire

BELCHERTOWN, Mass., September 4, 2007 — A study released today conducted by the People’s Burn Foundation of Indiana and Campus Firewatch outlines where students are lacking when it comes to life-saving information. This study also provides insight as to how students learn and how burn and fire safety professionals can deliver their messages to them effectively.

This study is the result of a series of focus groups at schools in Indiana and Massachusetts as well as an online survey of over 500 students from across the nation. In addition, a virtual focus group was held using Second Life, which provided the opportunity to interact with a much broader group of students and educators in gathering information.

The findings document what many campus fire safety officials have known through their personal experiences:

• Students have a demonstrated lack of knowledge about burn and fire safety, including information as basic as knowing what to do if their room should catch on fire
• Once they became aware of this knowledge gap, they were very interested in learning how to close this gap with life-saving information
• Delivering the information is a challenge because today’s students are inundated with advertising messages.

This study identifies these knowledge gaps and outlines possible strategies that can be used in delivering this training to today’s electronic generation. It also contains invaluable information on other contributing factors for the campus fire safety professional to consider when reaching out to these students, including how to market fire safety, the role of alcohol in campus-related incidents and the human behavior factors relating to the student demographic.

“The college demographic is a tough nut to crack,” said Shawn Longerich, executive director, People’s Burn Foundation. “Understanding how they think and what will attract their attention is crucial to developing meaningful prevention programs. As future leaders and parents, if they don’t know how to prevent fires and burn injuries, how will they teach their own children when the time comes?”

Copies of this study can be downloaded from both the Peoples Burn Foundation’s website (www.peoplesburnfoundation.org) and Campus Firewatch (www.campus-firewatch.com).

The People's Burn Foundation (PBF) was established as a nonprofit organization in 1997 by Della Hines, a burn survivor, after she suffered the loss of two of her three children in a 1991 apartment fire. PBF develops national burn prevention programs as well as provides support to burn survivors throughout Indiana.

Campus Firewatch, in publication since 2000, is a monthly electronic newsletter focusing on campus fire safety.For more information, visit our website at www.campus-firewatch.com.  

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