Clarendon County Fire Rescue to share tips and information through monthly column

Editor's note: In an effort to promote and encourage fire safety, Clarendon County Fire Rescue will be providing fire safety tips and additional information in the Clarendon Sun on the first Friday of each month. The stories will also be available on CCFR's Facebook page and website as well as The Item's website.

CLARENDON COUNTY - A tremendous amount of change has occurred in the last year for the Community Risk Reduction portion of Clarendon County Fire Rescue.

Just as preparations were being made for the merger with Clarendon EMS, the amount of community engagement was limited due to the onset of the pandemic. Under the same umbrella, two emergency services providers have much more than doubled the opportunities and responsibilities of risk reduction for our organization and community.

For many years, fire prevention consisted of building or fire codes enforcement, public education and investigation to reduce fire-related risk. Now, there is a broader spectrum of risk, and some of our emergency response personnel have played a vital part in moving us toward success. The range of elements that affect risk reduction include a sufficient number of well-trained and equipped personnel, up-to-date and properly maintained equipment and apparatus, proactive data processing and implementing the latest technology; and that's only a few.

A combination of personnel, equipment, data and technology with the use of some of the Es of CRR (Education, Engineering, Enforcement and Emergency Response) allows us to be more efficient, improve outcomes, reduce the number of injuries and deaths and possibly prevent some incidents entirely. No one expects to end our primary purpose and mission by these methods, but we can improve safety for emergency responders and the public we serve.

While we continue to grow with our fire-related safety messaging capabilities, the addition of medical calls has raised our awareness of non- fire-related needs. Medic units respond to calls that a proactive strategy can reduce in number or severity. A program that was new to us but previously well-established is a Community Paramedic program. Since July, the program has given more than 500 COVID-19 tests, offered the vaccine to home-bound patients and helped many others with various conditions and problems.

Each month, we have the opportunity here to share details of contributing elements of our Community Risk Reduction efforts along with timely fire and general safety information. We hope you will join us as we build partnerships and expand relationships with the public and community that we serve and care about.

When you see flashing red, blue, or yellow lights, SLOW DOWN and MOVE OVER. It's the law.