Overview of S.A.F.E. Program

The Student Awareness of Fire Education (S.A.F.E.) Program, which started in 1996, is a 6 year old statewide fire education program which is funded through a competitive grant process administered by the Executive Office of Public Safety (EOPS) in conjunction with the State Fire Marshall’s Office. Funding for this program comes from the Massachusetts State cigarette tax. In fiscal year 2002 the Lynn Fire Department received $7,045.00 from this program. Since it’s inception the city of Lynn has received $46,273.00 through this grant process. This grant money is used for prevention materials and literature for the various fire prevention programs the department conducts in elementary schools throughout the city and for numerous other public events the department is asked to participate in.

The main component of Lynn’s S.A.F.E. program is an eight-week curriculum whereas a trained firefighter visits every third grade class in the city (over 60 classes and 1,600 students) for 30 minutes each week for eight straight weeks, each week a different lesson is taught. The topics range from the dangers of smoking and drugs to preventing fires and how to escape from one if it does occur. The program was developed with the assistance of the Health and Wellness department of the Lynn Public Schools. The goals of this program are: to reduce the amount of fires in Lynn, reduce the amount of young people who take up the deadly habit of smoking, which is the #1 cause of fatal home fires, to stress the dangers of drugs and to foster good relationships with the young members of our community.

Lynn’s S.A.F.E. program has been extremely successful with many students using the life saving information they learn in school at home when a fire strikes. Many lives have been saved in our community because of the S.A.F.E. program In addition, the students also bring this life saving information home to their parents and siblings, who might be new immigrants to this country or never have learned this important safety information. All students are pre-tested  and post-tested, the average pre test grade is 60% and the average post test grade is 94%. The program is taught by Lt. Joseph Zukas, FF Ken Turner and various other Lynn Firefighters on occasion. The Coordinator of Lynn’s S.A.F.E. program is also Lt. Zukas. If you need information on the program or have any questions, please call the Fire Prevention Office at 781-596-0213.