Video: Fire Prevention a 'Living Program' for Kent Fire Department

I've listened to police radio scanners all my life. I grew up with police and firefighters as family members, and I continued to tune my ear to "cop speak" through my work as a journalist.

But it wasn't until I took this job, and tuned my scanner to only two channels — Kent fire and police radio bands — that I realized just how busy the safety departments in Portage County's largest city are. As one small example, for April calls for service to the fire department are up compared with the past two years.

Kent's police and firefighters — your neighbors and fellow taxpayers — constantly respond day and night to your aid. But they're not just reactionary forces. They strive to prevent crime, fires and accidents.

To that end, the fire prevention officers in Kent continually update their education program, which is used to teach (or remind) grade school children, college students and elderly residents how to prevent fires by avoiding commonplace mistakes.

At first, I thought it would be a tough thing to measure the success of fire prevention. Even Kent Fire Chief James Williams conceded this to some degree. Some years are lucky years and a city may have no fires.

But the success of Kent's fire prevention program can be measured among youngsters to some extent.

Williams said the department once dealt with anywhere from seven to 15 calls a year in which the cause of the fire was determined to have been started by a child. As a result, the department periodically counseled individual children to teach them the dangers of playing with fire and educate them on fire prevention.

In seven years, Williams said the department hasn't counseled a single child for having caused a fire.

Watch the attached video to get a sense of Kent's fire prevention program as presented throughout the community.