By JOHN BRANTON
The Columbian

VANCOUVER, Wash. — On Saturday morning, Vancouver Fire Marshal Jim Crawford caught a flight out of Portland to a major fire-prevention conference.

In Washington, D.C., today and Tuesday, more than 170 fire experts from across the U.S., plus some from the United Kingdom and Australia, will meet to share their facts and ideas.

National fire conferences have been happening for many years, Crawford said, but not on this scale.

"This project is unprecedented in scope and depth," Crawford said in a bulletin. "We have assembled an incredible array of experts from diverse fields to help craft a national prevention plan to reduce the loss of life and property from fire."

The forum "will bring us together to focus on gaps in our national effort to reduce fire loss," said Vancouver Fire Chief Don Bivins, who also will attend.

It's called Vision 20/20. Crawford, who has been working in fire prevention for the past 28 years, is the event's project manager.

A key topic, Crawford said, will be a better nationwide effort to educate the public about the causes of fires, and to use social marketing campaigns to change folks' attitudes about fire safety.

Officials in the U.K. started such a program several years ago and drove their fire rates down to a level that's lower than the rates in the U.S., Crawford said.
"We know the human race is capable of doing better than we are now," he said.

Another issue: Developing a consistent nationwide system for fire departments to report their types of fires, causes and other data into the National Fire Reporting System.
Currently, some departments report in a timely fashion, some lag behind and others don't report at all. As a result, the most recent database for analysis is for 2004, Crawford said.

Online origins
The seed that grew into Vision 20/20 was planted several years ago, in e-mail chat groups used by fire marshals around the country.

Two years ago, several decided to meet in Orlando, Fla., and decided to apply for a grant through the Institution of Fire Engineers.

They later received $238,000, awarded to the institution by the Department of Homeland Security.

Crawford, who came to the Vancouver Fire Department in 2003, is a former longtime chief fire marshal in Portland.

Also attending the summit: Clark County Fire Marshal Jon Dunaway and Kathy Goldin, training and development specialist with the city of Vancouver. 

Copyright 2008 The Columbian Publishing Co.