Over the years Sparky the Fire Dog has had many looks and messages. The constant has been his devotion to fire safety and fire prevention. This week’s Throwback Thursday looks back at the year 1973 and Sparky’s Spring Clean Up campaign messaging.

Sparky regularly takes part on local Wildfire Community Preparedness Day activities. Research around home destruction vs. home survival in wildfires point to embers and small flames as the main way that the majority of homes ignite in wildfires.

You can learn more about how wildfires spread and ignite homes in NFPA’s online course Understanding the Wildfire Threat to Homes. An overview of fire history, fire basics, and how homes burn.

For more information regarding this and other moments in fire history, please feel free to reach out to the NFPA Research Library & Archives.

 The NFPA Archives houses all of NFPA's publications, both current and historic.
 Library staff are available to answer research questions from members and the general public.

Happy Fire Prevention Month everyone! Let’s spend some time getting to know one of our favorite characters and look back at some of Sparky the Fire Dog’s appearances through history.

Pictured here: An advertisement with Smokey the Bear introducing the world to Sparky the Fire Dog (circa 1952).

Sparky the Fire Dog was created for the NFPA in 1951 and has been the organization’s official mascot and spokesdog ever since. He is a widely recognized fire safety icon who is beloved by children and adults alike. In addition to connecting with the public through educational programs, he has a very active website, sparky.org, which allows kids to explore and learn about fire safety in a trusted, interactive environment. The story of Sparky and a museum chronicling the changes in his appearance can also be found on the website. In addition to the name and image of Sparky, the title Sparky the Fire Dog is a registered trademark of NFPA. The name and image of Sparky have appeared on literally millions of copies of brochures, posters, workbooks, videos and other material distributed by the NFPA in the U.S. as well as internationally since the character’s initial creation.

Sparky has partnered with fire professionals, teachers, civic organizations, corporations and the media to deliver invaluable fire and life safety educational messages to children and adults alike. Over the years, the iconic fire dog has  used a multitude of educational techniques, including books, tip sheets, online resources, videos, apps and NFPA’s national public safety campaign, Fire Prevention Week, to share important safety messages like “Stop, drop and roll”; “Get out, stay out”; “Dial 9-1-1”; and “Know two ways out.” His dogged determination has ultimately helped reduce fire loss and injuries in North America. Be sure to visit www.sparky.org for safety educational materials; and follow Sparky’s

adventures on the Sparky website, Twitter, and Facebook.

The name and image of Sparky and the title Sparky the Fire Dog are registered trademarks of the National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA 02169.

For more information regarding this and other moments in fire history, please feel free to reach out to the NFPA Research Library & Archives.

 The NFPA Archives houses all of NFPA's publications, both current and historic.
 Library staff are available to answer research questions from members and the general public.

Wildfires continue to be a problem in the United States and abroad. According to the California Department of Insurance, the Camp Fire of November 2018 cost somewhere in the vicinity of $8.5 billion in property loss and damages. Currently, the Camp Fire is regarded as the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history.
While the massive destruction of such fires is difficult in itself, the tragedy that comes from the loss of lives all the more difficult to recover from.

This year’s first day of sessions at the Fire Protection Research Foundation’s Suppression, Detection and Signaling Research and Applications Conference (SUPDET 2019) covered a number of Detection-related topics. But I thought I would take a moment to highlight Jessica Doermann’s presentation on Development of a Research-Based Short Message Creation Tool for Wildfire Emergencies.

Doermann’s goal was to develop a message creation tool to help agencies generate effective 360-character messages that auto-incorporated research-based best practices. Her intent was to help develop a foundation for the bridge between short message alert research and the practical generation of messages during imminent threat emergencies.

Over the course of her research, Doermann determined that the following factors were the most important when it came to getting public response to messaging:

• Readability
• Content
• Style
• Risk Perception
• Public Trust
• Public Action

In addition, Doermann determined that the content of an effective short message alert was typically made up of five primary types of information:

• Hazard
• Location
• Timeline
• Guidance
• Source

However, depending on the length of the message and the amount of information provided, the order of these five necessary types of information would change.

If you would like to review Jessica Doermann’s presentation, or any of the other wonderful and informative presentations from this year’s Suppression, Detection and Signaling Research and Applications Conference (SUPDET 2019), please visit https://www.nfpa.org/supdet19presentations

And don’t forget to save the date for next year’s AUBE’20/SUPDET2020 which will be held September 15-17, 2020 at Katholische Akademie ‘Die Wolfsburg’ Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.

Today we look back at a historic fire incident that had a significant influence on modern firefighting tactics.

The Blackwater Fire began with an electrical storm on August 18, 1937 near Blackwater Creek in Shoshone National Forest area of Wyoming. When the fire was first noticed, it looked like it only covered an area of two acres. However, at the would continue to grow and eventually cover roughly 1,700 acres and lead to the deaths of 15 firefighters.

From the NFPA Quarterly vol.31, no.3 (1938):

“[Above is an] aerial view of Blackwater burn. Dash line indicates edge of fire when finally corralled. Dotted line shows fire line lost at time of tragedy. Right-hand arrow marks the place where 7 men were burned to death by a spot fire from below, which these men had just discovered when fires were whipped to fury by sudden wind. Left-hand arrow points to spot on ridge where crew of 40 men were overtaken by flames while climbing to safety above timber line. Most of the crew who stayed with their foremen at this point were painfully burned. Three died later. Four others who broke away died in the fire.”

The Blackwater Fire was the first fatality fire to have an in-depth investigation into the events immediately after the incident. The lasting impact from this tragedy is that the analysis of the event led to the smokejumper program.

The Wildland Fire Leadership Program has set up a detailed Staff Ride to the Blackwater Fire. The concept behind staff rides is “to put participants in the shoes of decision makers on a historical incident in order to learn for the future.” It allows participants to ask thoughtful questions not just about “what happened?” but also “What would I have done?”

For more information regarding this and other moments in fire history, please feel free to reach out to the NFPA Research Library & Archives.

 The NFPA Archives houses all of NFPA's publications, both current and historic.
 Library staff are available to answer research questions from members and the general public.

During the summer of 1925, Mr. S.D. McComb, chairman of the NFPA Marine Committee shared a story that he had heard from a colleague “across the pond” regarding the possible hazards of a pastime once common aboard ships at sea in the mid-to-late 1800’s.

From The NFPA Quarterly v.19, no.1, 1925:

Referring to an article in a recent number of the Nautical Magazine about fires on board ship. The following, although not recent information, may interest you. It was told me by a man-of-war’s man about fifty years ago. My informant probably started his career at sea in the early sixties, and most likely in wooden ships. Here are his own words, as near as I can remember: “Us boys used to catch cockroaches, get some small pieces of candle, light them, tilt them a bit to let the grease run, then put them on the cockroaches’ backs, and have races.” He then naively added: “You must not get catched at it though.” I presume the bearers of the light would make for some secluded spot in the ship.

For more information regarding this and other moments in fire history, please feel free to reach out to the NFPA Research Library & Archives.

The NFPA Archives houses all of NFPA's publications, both current and historic.
Library staff are available to answer research questions from members and the general public.

During the late 1970’s and early 1980’s master magician, Mark Wilson toured the United States with a jovial talking steam pump engine named Snuffy.

There were two versions of Snuffy used as part of the national radio and television tour promoting fire safety for children. Little Snuffy was designed and built by Doug Beswick and Carl Jablonski. He had moving headlights, a mouth, and a hat that “tipped.” It drove and did everything by remote control. Big Snuffy was created by John Gaughn, the master illusion builder, and was built on a golf cart chassis. The driver “magically” controlled it from inside the boiler.

For more information regarding this and other moments in fire history, please feel free to reach out to the NFPA Research Library & Archives. 

The NFPA Archives houses all of NFPA's publications, both current and historic. 

Library staff are available to answer research questions from members and the general public. 

On June 9th, 1946 a fire at the Canfield Hotel in Dubuque, Iowa captured national attention when 19 people died and 20 others were injured.

The Canfield Hotel consisted of two buildings: the original four story brick joisted section and the six story fire resistive annex that was built in 1925. The original building did not have a sprinkler system and had installed a wooden stairway to connect the original building to the three upper floors of the annex. The annex had a closed non-combustible stairwell with automatic fire doors that lead to an exit on the ground floor.

Guests accessed the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors of the annex from a sub-standard elevator or the open stairway from the first floor of the original building. Additionally, corridors between the original building to the annex continued across all floors but were protected with automatic fire doors. Guests accessed the fifth and sixth floors of the annex from an elevator.

The fire started in a small closet in the Red Lounge on the first floor of the hotel. Waitresses were instructed to put cigarette butts in paper napkins and place them in a paper trash can in the closet. At 12:10 am, four guests had gone to play the juke box and heard a crackling noise and smelled smoke, went to investigate, and discovered that the wall in the closet was on fire. The guests and the hotel manager tried to extinguish the fire with a wet towel and a fire extinguisher but their attempts were unsuccessful. The fire quickly spread to the combustible finish on the walls of the bar. Fifteen minutes after the fire began, the hotel manager tried to warn guests on the upper floors. The night clerk notified the fire department at 12:39 am. Many escaped by using the fire escape on the annex.

When the fire department arrived, the fire had encompassed the lounge and the lobby. The fire department did not have enough staff to simultaneously fight the fire and save lives so they made the decision that life-saving took priority over fighting the fire at the time. At 12:42 am, another alarm was sent out by police radio to call for additional help. Civilians, the police department, and National Guardsmen assisted the fire department. They were able to rescue 35 people using ladders and 27 people jumped into life nets. It took the fire department 2.5 hours with six pumping engines, an aerial, and two ladder companies to extinguish the fire.

For more information regarding this and other moments in fire history, please feel free to reach out to the NFPA Research Library & Archives.

The NFPA Archives houses all of NFPA's publications, both current and historic.
Library staff are available to answer research questions from members and the general public.