The holiday season was in full swing on the beautiful afternoon of Dec. 17, 2001. Unfortunately, it was also the day when a three-alarm fire at the Bonita Villa Apartments in Tigard, Ore., killed a 24-year-old man and threatened the lives of 55 adults and 43 children. By the time the fire in the back bedroom was discovered by the occupants, the situation was life-threatening. The young man died trying to locate a child who had already escaped with his mother. Fire officials later found a disabled smoke alarm in the bedroom closet.

Since 1995, Tualatin Valley (Ore.) Fire & Rescue has fought more than 20 major apartment fires in which 16 tenants died, 50 tenants were injured, more than 500 tenants were displaced, and millions of dollars in property damage were incurred. Included in this list is the nation's deadliest fire of 1996, the Oakwood Park Apartments fire in which three adults and five children died. All of these fires had two common ingredients: no working smoke alarms and a large number of tenants who didn't speak English.

Codependent danger

According to retired Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue Fire Marshal Jeff Grunewald, “Multi-family dwellings are an environment where an individual can do everything right, yet still be at the mercy of their neighbor's unsafe behavior.” Day after day, year after year, fire departments continue to respond to apartment fires where people are injured or killed. Why then do so many tenants disable their smoke alarms? Has the fire service failed to adequately educate individuals about the importance of working smoke alarms?

Up until the Bonita Villa fire, Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue believed we were doing a good job. For decades, we had offered free smoke alarms to individuals; conducted school presentations; participated in safety fairs throughout the community; and pioneered the use of mass media to disseminate safety messages via print, radio, public transit and television. Additionally, after the Oakwood Park Apartment fire, we implemented Apartment Fire Incidence Reduction Education, or AFIRE, in which firefighters and fire prevention staff conduct weekend safety events at apartment communities considered to be at high risk for fire due to building age and construction, incident history, and landlord/tenant profiles.

“In spite of all these activities, people were still dying in homes without a working smoke alarm,” says Chief Jeff Johnson. “It was becoming more obvious that our public was still unaware of the importance of these warning devices.”

For example, after the Bonita Villa fire, firefighters canvassed the apartment complex and found 64 apartments with missing or non-functioning smoke alarms. Smoke alarms were immediately installed, but following a second fire one month later, firefighters found that over 63% had been disabled by the mostly Spanish-speaking tenants. “At that point,” Johnson says, “we began asking ourselves, ‘Is it the message or maybe even the messenger?’”

Wanting to answer that question, Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue secured a U.S. Fire Administration Grant for $84,616 in 2002. The goal was to identify the barriers to maintaining working smoke alarms and improve our strategies for targeting and educating at-risk populations (low-income English- and Spanish-speaking individuals). To accomplish that, our smoke alarm grant project included a demographic study, public awareness campaign and apartment landlord outreach.

Demographic study

To gain a better understanding of our demographics, we hired Campbell DeLong Resources Inc., a market-research firm with 14 years of experience in landlord-tenant issues. The demographic study identified our service area as having an 8% Hispanic/Latino population and examined issues such as age, income levels, rate of home ownership and age of occupancy, education, and length of residency.

Campbell DeLong Resources then conducted three focus group interviews to try to determine why at-risk populations continue to disable their smoke alarms. These interviews were conducted in both English and Spanish with Spanish-speaking parents from a local school district, prominent Spanish-speaking leaders in the community, and tenants from two apartment complexes where fatal fires had occurred. The market-research firm also interviewed the apartment managers and maintenance personnel.

One of the most eye-opening revelations was that “widespread disabling of smoke alarms is not wholly a direct function of either income or language barrier.” While the study showed that “the target group is at greater risk for fire deaths than higher-income English-speaking populations, it is not the case that all members … are equally at risk. Rather, these two elements, especially in combination, define a population that is more vulnerable to being taken advantage of by a negligent landlord.”

The focus groups also confirmed that people disable smoke alarms due to a lack of understanding or insufficient awareness of their importance. While this wasn't new information, it was a springboard to determine specific key messages for future educational materials. These included:

• Smoke alarms wake you if you have a fire.
• Silent smoke kills.
• React to nuisance alarms by fanning the smoke or opening a window, not by removing the battery.
• Test and replace batteries.

The research also guided us to ensure that future safety messages to the Latino community are better received and understood:

• Safety messages should explain the importance of smoke alarms in both personal and community terms.
• Messages should be conveyed with pictures.
• Messages should be repeated over time due to the transient nature of this population.

Finally, Campbell DeLong Resources found that at the poorly managed property, 50% of the smoke alarms were disabled; at the better-managed property only 4% had been disabled. According to Johnson, “This information illustrated just how pivotal landlords are to maintaining safer apartments. Remember our original question, is it the message or messenger? The research confirmed for us it was both.”

Public awareness campaign

The second phase of the grant project included a public awareness campaign using mass media such as public-transit signage and radio and TV public service announcements.

Although Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue is experienced in buying media and producing commercials, we decided to bring in a team of outside experts to develop an overall theme for the campaign. The Lloyd Maris Advertising Agency's passion for this project was evident. They condensed a vast multitude of research findings into concise and easy-to-understand messages, never losing sight of the target audiences.

The overall campaign theme, “Keep It Noisy! A working smoke alarm protects you, your family, and your neighbors,” flowed through all of the campaign elements, which were produced in both English and Spanish. In addition, all print pieces included pictorials.

A key component in creating the bilingual materials was Bruce International, a nationally recognized translation company. They edited all of the campaign elements to ensure that the content didn't lose its meaning in translation. Another partner was Newton Bard, which specializes in original music and sound services for TV, radio and film. Newton Bard composed music for the PSAs and recorded the voice talent in English and Spanish.

Lloyd Maris and the campaign partners produced more than we could have ever expected. Their commitment brought more than $90,000 in corporate and media in-kind contributions to the grant project.

Apartment outreach

The third and possibly most exciting phase of the project involved returning to high-risk apartment complexes. Armed with research data on how pivotal landlords are in helping to create safer apartments, a deputy fire marshal was assigned to develop a landlord training and inspection pilot program.

Ten high-risk apartment complexes were selected to distribute the following resources:

• Posters for laundry and common areas.
• Smoke alarm pictorial sheets to be given to tenants when signing the rental agreement.
• Smoke alarm tabletop displays for educating new tenants on the audible alarm and maintenance tips.
• Refrigerator magnets to reinforce the safety message in the home of each tenant.

Additionally, three brochures were developed and mailed directly to the tenants in these complexes. This proved to be the most effective form of messaging. Our first confirmation came only weeks into the project when an apartment manager informed us that six Spanish-speaking tenants reported non-working smoke alarms after receiving our brochure in the mail.

To evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign and apartment pilot program, Campbell DeLong Resources was hired to survey the tenants at the 10 high-risk apartment complexes using a bilingual computer-aided telephone system. The main objectives were to determine the tenants' level of awareness and perceptions of the importance of smoke alarms, and evaluate whether landlords were cooperative toward and supportive of working smoke alarms.

Numerous eye-opening facts emerged during this research:

• 32% of English-speaking and 62% of Spanish-speaking residents recalled seeing the direct mail piece.
• 38% of English-speaking and 7% of Spanish-speaking residents recalled seeing smoke alarm or fire prevention information on television.
• 81% of English-speaking and 66% of Spanish-speaking residents believe that most fire deaths happen at night while people sleep.
• 32% of English-speaking and 57% of Spanish-speaking residents believe that the sound of a fire will awaken you in time to escape.
• 22% of English-speaking and 70% of Spanish-speaking residents believe that smoke alarms are designed to keep a home safe while cooking.
• 32% of English-speaking and 57% of Spanish-speaking residents believe that fire deaths are usually in the early evening as a result of cooking accidents.
• 52% of English-speaking and 66% of Spanish-speaking residents believe their landlord communicates the importance of smoke alarm maintenance.
• 53% of English-speaking and 66% of Spanish-speaking residents believe their landlord takes prompt action when told about a problem.

Program expansion

Fire does not discriminate. It doesn't discriminate in where it starts, where it spreads, and whom it injures or kills. This is especially true in multifamily housing, where a fire in one person's home threatens an entire community, not to mention responding firefighters. With that said, the department now is even more committed to overcoming misperceptions surrounding smoke alarms for all at-risk populations.

“I believe the results of this grant provide a new road map for Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue, as well as the fire service, in delivering the message on the importance of working smoke alarms,” Johnson says. “We see now that this is not a low-income or language barrier issue, but rather an issue that relies on both a succinct message and willing messenger in order to be understood.”

Like most fire departments today, Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue has limited resources. However, we believe that the research we contracted will go a long way in targeting future educational messages. We also recognize that to make an impact in multifamily dwellings, we must continue to motivate and train landlords to carry forth the message on smoke alarms. Toward that end, the department has already added an additional 10 apartments/landlords to our pilot program.

---

Karen Eubanks is the public information officer for Tualatin Valley (Ore.) Fire & Rescue.

Resources

To review or download the reports, campaign elements or landlord resources, visit Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue's Web site at www.tvfr.com/dept/cs/campaigns/smokealarm/index.html.

CDRI presentations are also available on videotape by request.