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BFireSafe@School

Project Overview

BFireSafe@School was an Erasmus+ funded project that delivers fire safety education to post-primary school students across Europe. This new teacher-led programme was developed to place student wellbeing and personal safety at the centre of learning. The BFireSafe@School resources aim to ensure that students aged 12-18 develop the knowledge, skills and attitude necessary to keep themselves and others safe from fire. Participating post-primary school students will be given the opportunity to learn about: protecting themselves, their families and communities from fire; fire science; and careers in the fire service, and other related industries. Therefore, the BFireSafe@School programme will help individuals and communities to develop enhanced disaster resilience capabilities.

BFireSafe@School was developed by a project consortium of nine partners in seven EU countries – Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Lithuania and Spain. The lead partner was Leitrim County Fire Service and the project was co-ordinated by Leitrim’s Chief Fire Officer Finian Joyce. Researchers from the Centre for Innovative Human Systems (CIHS), Trinity College Dublin (TCD) supported quality standards and evaluation of the BFireSafe@School educational content.

Background to Research

The BFireSafe@School project was motivated by a recent study by the Federation of European Fire Officers (FEU), which found that fire safety education in school is focused mainly on primary school children aged 8-9. In addition, it also revealed a lack of any standard approach to fire safety education for post-primary students across Europe. The findings of the FEU study and those of a survey conducted specifically for BFireSafe@School highlighted a need to address the fire safety education gap in post-primary education in Europe. As a result, BFireSafe@School has devised the first harmonised fire safety programme developed specifically for post primary schools across Europe.

BFireSafe@School has been endorsed by the Chief Fire Officers’ Association in Ireland, FEU (Federation of European Fire Officers) and the Association of Teacher Education in Europe, based in Brussels. Leading fire safety organisations worldwide, such as Underwriters Laboratories (USA), National Fire Protection Association (USA) and the Science Museum in Tartu, Estonia, also supported the content development, which has brought an important international profile to the project.

BFireSafe@School Project Results

The BFireSafe@School project has delivered the following results:

BFireSafe@School Educational Material
BFireSafe@School consists of ten units suitable for various age groups, Junior Cycle (12-15), Transition Year (16) and Senior Cycle students (17-18). At the end of each unit students complete short online assessments and certification is available.

The ten units are as follows:
Unit 1 - Managing Myself – Safe Person Concept
Unit 2 - Fire Science
Unit 3 - Fire Safety Indicators
Unit 4 - Case Studies – Learning from Past Incidents
Unit 5 - Calling the Emergency Services
Unit 6 - Fire Safety in the Home
Unit 7 - Fire Safety in the School
Unit 8 - Fire Safety in the Environment Unit 9 - Emergency Action Plans
Unit 10 - Careers in the Fire Service

These can be accessed at www.bfiresafeatschool.eu

Learning Management System
BFireSafe@School is available online in a user-friendly format and uses innovative digital technologies to deliver the programme. These include an Augmented Reality app called FireSmartAR, developed in collaboration with an Irish company called Little Red Edu (which can be downloaded from the App store). A virtual reality app has been developed in association with a Spanish company called Tescinor, an online gaming app called ‘Rescue Heroes’, developed by our Lithuanian partners LearnKey, the use of robots, science experiments, videos on fire science, a school evacuation video and information on careers in the fire service. All the content is available within a specially developed Learning Management System.

BFireSafe@School educational material is available in ten languages: English, Irish, Basque, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Lithuanian and Spanish. BFireSafe@School can be integrated into existing subjects on the school curriculum. With its availability in multiple languages, it can also be used as an additional language resource by language teachers. To assist teachers in delivering the programme, a Teachers’ Handbook has been produced with additional resources and tips for use, both in class and online. Fire personnel can also support teachers in delivering aspects of the programme in school.

Fire Safety Award

BFireSafe@School received the 'EU Fire Safety Award for Best Community Fire Safety Project' at the 6th International Safety Education Seminar (ISES) 2021 Dublin, March 24-25 2022.

Further Information

The programme is free, easy to use and requires no previous knowledge. To register as a teacher, student/other or fire personnel visit www.bfiresafeatschoo.eu
You can also follow the project on social media platforms:

Facebook: BFireSafeAtSchool
Twitter:@BFireSafeSchool
Instagram: bfiresafeatschool

Read more about in our article EU Fire Safety Programme