News Media Fire Safety Class is 10 Years Old

Ten years ago, the CAL FIRE San Bernardino Unit rolled out a specially created program to provide fire safety training to the news media. The program evolved from the practice of having news media days at fire facilities where a few news media people would receive training to the current program. The current program was designed to take real training to the news media in order to actually provide safety training to the maximum number of news personnel possible.

The first location that the class was provided was at Los Angeles television station KTLA, channel 5. From that time, the class has been taught at least once at nearly every television station, news radio station and news paper in the Los Angeles news market. To date more than 1,000 members of the news media, reporters, videographers, news editors, producers and news management have participated in the training.

This year, the CAL FIRE San Bernardino Unit has provided first time and refresher training to Fox News Channel, NBC4 and ABC7. In these training classes, more than 300 news professionals have received the training. The training at ABC7 was conducted this week and more than 150 members of the news staff participated in the three days of fire safety training.

This training is not only important from a safety standpoint which is paramount, but is also provides education that allows the reporters to provide better and more accurate information in their news reports regarding fires and what they can do.

CAL FIRE Teaches Fire Safety at ABC7

For the second consecutive year, the CAL FIRE San Bernardino Unit was invited to present our News Media Fire Safety class to the news staff at ABC7 television. Located in Glendale, San Bernardino Unit Information Officer Bill Peters conducted eight 90-minute refresher classes over three days, July 12, 13, and 14. Attendance at one of the classes was required for the news staff and technical staff.

Last year, Peters presented the four hour safety class for the first time ever at ABC7. This year, the refresher class included wildland fire behavior, fire ground injuries and safety, off-road vehicle operation, Penal Code Section 409.5 (media access law), and a special focus on Situational Awareness. Peters also spent some time on fire shelter use and deployment, with a volunteer in every class actually deploying a practice shelter. By the way, some of the volunteers were females including one lady reporter who successfully deployed the shelter in her business suit while wearing heels, demonstrating that anyone can successfully deploy a fire shelter. "I really appreciated the willingness of the attendees to engage in the class as well as volunteer to try something new in front of their peers" said Peters.

CAL FIRE BDU teaches fire safety at ABC7

For three days last week, studio B at the ABC7 News Studios in Glendale was turned over to CAL FIRE BDU. What was going on? Fire safety was going on. Assistant Chief Doug Lannon and Information Officer Bill Peters were teaching the news staff how to be safe not only while covering wildland fires, but how to stay safe in the field in general. Lannon and Peters taught the same four hour class twice a day for three days. One hundred and thirteen members of the ABC7 news staff, reporters, assignment editors, producers, and videographers attended.
The class was developed in 2002 by Lannon and Peters as a way to deliver fire safety training to the news media on a large scale. The class is designed to go into the news operations and fit it to their needs in order to teach and inform the maximum number of personnel possible. The class includes training on news media and the law regarding 409.5 of the California Penal Code (the media access to disasters law), personal protective equipment, fire behavior, fire ground injuries, and fire ground safety including vehicle operations off road.

Since 2002, Lannon and Peters have taught this class or the 90-minute refresher class to every major news outlet in the Los Angeles television market. This program was designed to be a turn-key presentation and has been shared with other CAL FIRE Units throughout the state.