Learn Not to Burn
Canada's continued high annual losses of life and property due to fire indicates a need for an increased effort in creating, through education, a fire-safe environment for Canadians. Many fire deaths and injuries involve children of kindergarten and elementary school ages. Fire Prevention Canada believes many of these tragic losses can be prevented through a coordinated national approach to fire safety education.
Children make up a large percentage of the fire death and injury statistics in Canada. Therefore, this age group has been targeted for fire safety educational programs. After an extensive review period, Fire Prevention Canada determined that the Learn Not To Burn Curriculum is the most comprehensive, user-friendly and proven fire safety educational program in existence today.
The Learn Not To Burn educational materials have been developed in consultation with educators, fire and burn prevention professionals and curriculum specialists to ensure that the program materials are of the highest quality. The program has been designed to encourage "at-home" and community participation to strengthen the knowledge obtained in the classroom. Parent questionnaires and "take-home" activities help to encourage family participation in fire safety, "life saving" skills.
The Fire Marshals and Fire Commissioners from across Canada are unanimously committed to work with educators and fire departments to ensure a successful implementation and follow up process of the Learn Not To Burn program.
The Learn Not To Burn program is in place in all the City of Greater Sudbury elementary schools. Preparation through education is the best defence children can learn. Lessons taught to students through this curriculum will prepare them to act properly and quickly should they be faced with a dangerous fire situation.
For more Fire Safety information, contact the City of Greater Sudbury Fire Services, Fire Prevention division at 3-1-1
The Learn Not to Burn® (LNTB) curriculum is a fire safety curriculum designed by teachers for teachers and is intended for use by individual classroom teachers. The curriculum is written for Grades K - 3 and teaches 22 key fire safety behaviours.
The LNTB curriculum is an internationally accepted program that was developed by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). The Canadian Tire Child Protection Association has funded the distribution and translation of the materials to all public schools in Canada.
The following LNTB educational materials are available in French and English:
Level 1 - Learn Not to Burn® curriculum binder
LNTB Resource Books
LNTB Pre-School Program
All four Greater Sudbury School Board of Education endorsed the LNTB curriculum in 1994 as a component of the health and guidance curriculum. The Fire Services is responsible for implementing the curriculum, distributing the program materials and for providing in-service training for the teachers in the Sudbury school divisions.
LNTB Resource Books
LNTB Resource Books are a grade-based alternative to the LNTB curriculum. The four resource books teach children in Kindergarten through Grade three, 14 basic fire safety behaviours. Each lesson includes background fire safety information for teachers, discussion points and reproducible activity sheets that can be integrated into classroom subjects such as language arts, math, art, health/safety, social studies and science. Also included are evaluation forms to test students' fire safety knowledge both before and after the program has been taught.
LNTB Pre-School Program
LNTB Pre-school program uses songs, games and activities to teach eight basic fire and burn prevention behaviours to children ages 3 - 5 years. The lessons are short, simple and encourage active participation. The program includes a 60-page teacher's guide that features detailed lesson plans, fire safety background information, letters to parents and reproducible colouring sheets. LNTB Pre-school is available from Fire Prevention Canada. (www.fiprecan.ca/)
NFPA'S "Learn Not To Burn TM" Program
"The Canadian Experience"
In 1993 a partnership between Fire Prevention Canada, the Canadian Tire Child Protection Foundation, and the National Fire Protection Association was developed to provide elementary schools across Canada with Learn Not to Burn (LNTB) Level 1 Curriculum and four Resource Books.
Fire Prevention Canada, (FPC), a national registered charitable organization dedicated to providing Canada with dynamic leadership and national focus in the field of fire prevention through education, provided the leadership and management necessary for the implementation and delivery of the LNTB program. FPC's commitment to LNTB was to provide the initial funding of $500,000 to Canadianize and implement this program nationally through the Fire Marshals and Fire Commissioners. Since 1993 FPC has continued to underwrite the administration costs of LNTB.
The Canadian Tire Child Protection Foundation funded the program at a cost of $890,000 over a three-year period, to provide approximately 13,000 sets of materials available in English and French to all schools across Canada.
The LNTB program was selected for this national initiative since it met FPC's criteria of fire prevention through education. LNTB was designed and developed by the NFPA in consultation with educators, fire and burn prevention experts and curriculum experts. The program was endorsed by the Canadian Teachers' Federation, provincial educational authorities and the Fire Service and targeted to children who represent a major percentage of fire deaths and injuries in Canada.
In addition to the LNTB materials, promotional videos and media kits in English and French were developed, as well as 42 Sparky costumes. These were distributed to Fire Marshals and Fire Commissioners to assist in implementing the program in their provinces.
The rate of implementation of the program varies across Canada, depending on the strategies developed by the Fire Marshals and Fire Commissioners and resources available. The program is in place throughout Canada and, as of October 1998, over 80% of the materials were in schools and the provincial implementation was ongoing.
It is gratifying to see the tremendous success of this program nationally since its availability in 1994.
In reviewing and analyzing the Canadian scene, the following has been achieved:
Public education of school-aged children through LNTB program saves lives and reduces property loss from fire. A total of 35 Save incidents have been recognized, resulting in 88 lives saved since the introduction of the program in 8 provinces across Canada.
Where implemented, the knowledge level of school children of fire safety practices has increased and they are able to put the knowledge gained into practice.
This program will continue to be available to children in the future and Canadians will benefit through the knowledge and behaviours learned for a lifetime.
The successes that have been achieved are the direct result of the commitment of educators and the Fire Service and would not have been possible without the NFPA Learn Not to BurnTM program, the support of the Canadian Tire Child Protection Foundation, Fire Prevention Canada and the Fire Marshals and Fire Commissioners to deliver and implement the program in schools across Canada serving approximately 3.5 million students.
As Canadians, we should all be proud of this achievement.
Learn Not to Burn Program®
The Learn not to Burn Program takes into account what children need to know about fire and burn prevention and it teaches them in a positive, non-threatening way
For more than 20 years, Learn Not to Burn® (LNTB) has been the theme and focus of NFPA's comprehensive public fire safety education initiatives. Based on NFPA's belief that fire safety information should be presented in a positive, non-threatening manner, LNTB teaches people of all ages how to make responsible choices regarding health and safety.
Children in preschool through eighth grade can receive critical life safety skills through the following LNTB education materials:
The LNTB Curriculum, first released in 1979, teaches 22 key fire safety behaviours and is organized in three learning levels. The curriculum is intended for use by individual classroom teachers in planning classroom activities and can be re-used from year to year.
The LNTB Resource Books, available in English and French, are a grade-based alternative to the LNTB Curriculum. This four-volume program teaches children in kindergarten through grade three 14 basic fire safety behaviours over a four-year period. Each lesson includes background fire safety information for teachers, discussion points, and reproducible activity sheets that can be integrated into classroom subjects such as language arts, math, art, health/safety and science. Also included are evaluation forms to test students' fire safety knowledge both before and after the new program has been implemented.
The LNTB Preschool Program, available in English and French, uses original songs, games, and activities to teach eight basic fire and burn prevention behaviours to children ages 3-5. The lessons in the program are short and simple and encourage active participation. The program includes a 60-page teacher's guide featuring detailed lesson plans, fire safety background information, letters to parents and reproducible colouring sheets. Each lesson is reinforced with a lively, easy-to-learn fire safety song included on a cassette tape of original music.
Through its partnerships, the Council helps support the continued implementation of the highly successful Learn Not to Burn® (LNTB®) fire safety education program that is available to elementary school children worldwide. Based on the National Fire Protection Association's curriculum, it includes songs, stories, puppets, games and other activities to teach fire safety behaviours (e.g., Stop, Drop and Roll, crawl low under smoke) in a way that children can understand and remember. This program has been credited with saving lives throughout North America. In the past six years, Ontario has documented life saves attributed to LNTB® in Prescott, Chatham, Sudbury, Owen Sound, Ajax, Smiths Falls and Brockville, among others.
LNTB® focuses on teaching 22 key fire safety behaviours to children from kindergarten to grade 8 through the core curriculum in their classrooms. Through a partnership with Fire Prevention Canada, the NFPA and the Canadian Tire Child Protection Foundation, almost 4,000 Level 1 curricula have been delivered to schools across Ontario.
A LNTB preschool program is designed to teach eight simple but important life saving behaviours to children in preschool and day-care centres. To date, more than 1,200 preschool kits have been distributed throughout Ontario.