Attendance for the 32nd Annual Fire & Life Safety Conference at Chestnut Mountain in Galena, Illinois reached 103.  For those attendees, day two was full of messages and sharing.  Aside from the great presentations made, the second day provided yet another networking opportunity for attendees. 

Networking has been an overall theme of the conference.  If each of the 103 participants shares just one idea with another attendee, then the sparks of 10,609 new public education programs could be lit.  Imagine the possibilities.

Today’s participants were treated to some fascinating programs beginning with a presentation by Amy Acton, Executive Director of the Phoenix Society for burn survivors.  A burn survivor and burn unit nurse, Amy delivered a message that many of us may have forgotten.  While some burns can be healed, we must not forget to focus on helping survivors come home from the burn center and back into their communities.  The Journey Back provides resources to assist in school reentry after burn injury.

Not only did Amy focus on school and community reentry, she was just as passionate about prevention.  As a participant in Common Voices, she spoke to the importance of fire sprinklers.  To learn more about how the Common Voices Advocate Coalition formed, you can watch this video.

Following a quick ice breaker, Battalion Chief Barry Henby of the Gurnee, Illinois Fire Department gave a talk next on Customer Service Above & Beyond the Call.  As he started off his presentation with a moving retelling of the Phoenix, Arizona Fire Department’s The Littlest Firefighter, you could hear a pin drop.

He spoke of having two goals for each day:  leadership and customer service.  Any time he has the opportunity to complete one of those goals, his job has been done.  Given the passion with which he spoke about the programs that he has been involved with, I suspect the job gets done each day!

Lt. Barbara Weil of the North Oakland County Fire Authority travelled all the way from Holly, Michigan to teach the crowd about effectively using props in public education presentations.  I was amazed at the number of props that her department has available to utilize.  Even more amazing was the how she worked with a small budget and sought out prop sponsors to make these tools a realization. 

Lt. Shawn Stephens of the Batavia, Illinois Fire Department showed the audience how to E.A.T.  His Emergency Action Team program is designed to teach restaurant employees what to do in the case of an emergency, especially how to evacuate patrons during a fire alarm.

The importance of residential fire sprinklers was stressed again.  There are many resources available to assist communities in getting residential fire sprinklers into the codes and legislation.  For more information, visit: The Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition, National Fire Sprinkler Association and the Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board.

Rounding out an important day, Craig Fata of the Normal, Illinois Fire Department demonstrated his fire prevention program that utilizes a Robotronic fire hydrant, named Pluggie.  Craig also showed off his talent at changing his voice to bring Pluggie to life.  Paul Scwhen from Robotronic further demonstrated the uses of the Robotronic electronic props.  Pat Koetting with the Rainbow Valley Fire Department completed the presentations by giving some background into how the prevention series came into being.

I’ve got to wrap this up for now as it is almost time for the conference banquet.  If I haven’t mentioned this before, you really must make it to this conference if you live in the Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin area.  If Lt. Weil can be inspired to come in all the way from Michigan to present during her second year, then why aren’t you here?