The Student Awareness of Fire Education (S.A.F.E.) program provides grants to local fire departments to teach fire and life safety to children in schools. The program teaches students to recognize the dangers of fire and the fire hazards of tobacco products through 23 key fire safety behaviors taught in developmentally appropriate ways. Fire and life safety is easy to combine with math, science, language arts and health or physical education lessons, making it easy to collaborate with school teachers. Since the S.A.F.E. program began in 1996, child fire deaths have dropped significantly in Massachusetts. In fact, there have been no child fire deaths in Massachusetts since March 17, 2019. This is the longest period in the Commonwealth's recorded history.
S.A.F.E. is one of two fire and life safety education grant programs available to Massachusetts fire departments. The second program is Senior SAFE, which aims to reduce older adult fire deaths through fire and life safety education.
Massachusetts fire departments can apply for FY22 S.A.F.E. grants and view the requirements here.
SAFE Teaching Tools
We have a guide to all the tools you need to teaching S.A.F.E. and Senior SAFE and to running your grant program. The Guide includes:
Additional Resources for
Fire Safety Houses
S.A.F.E. provides one fire safety house for each of the 15 fire mobilization districts in Massachusetts. Fire safety houses are mobile educational tools for teaching fire prevention. Educators use the house to show specific fire safety behaviors. Children then use the house to practice the behaviors. For example, children can practice escaping from a bedroom window through “pretend” smoke. The fun exercises in a fire safety house can prepare children to react safely in an emergency.
To use a fire safety house, call the contact person for your region: Fire Safety Houses by District.