In an effort to reduce the fire incidence among the 19,000 low-income residents of the Memphis Housing Authority (MHA), a 35-minute fire-safety training program was developed and presented to every new head-of-household during his or her initial orientation session. The content of the program was determined through an analysis of nine years of MHA fire incidents and their causes, as well as discussions with residents about the context in which risky fire behaviors occur and training approaches that might be effective. The program also contained a component where trainees made a formal, written commitment to engage in self-selected fire-safety behaviors. Data on fire incidence after 15 months indicated that the 2,340 residents who received the training were almost five times less likely to experience a fire than untrained residents. 01996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The goal of community psychology is "to optimize the well being of communities and individuals with innovative and alternate interventions designed in collaboration with affected community members and with other related disciplines inside and outside of psychology" (Duffy & Wong, 1996). From a behavioral perspective, the application of action-research paradigms to address community problems consists of the systematic attempt to (1) clearly identify a problem behavior and the context in which it occurs, (2) employ this understanding to select one or more antecedents andlor consequences to alter the behavior, and (3) evaluate the efficacy of the intervention. As intuitive as this model seems to behavioral community psychologists, the strategies that various organizations apply in an attempt to change behavior typically do not include this systematic process, with the result that they are often ineffective. Conversely, where community psychologists do become part of the system's problem-solving structure, the application of this model can lead to very positive outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to report on one such opportunity in the arena of fire safety and public housing, an important topic that has not yet received much attention from community psychologists.
According to the United States Fire Administration (1993), residential fires accounted for 23% of the total number of fires in the United States from 1983 through 1990. The consequences of residential fires were disproportionately large, accounting for 72% of the deaths, 66% of the injuries, and 38% of the total dollar loss caused by fire. Tennessee ranks eighth in the nation for fire deaths (32.6 per million population), and Memphis suffers from one of the highest residential fire death rates in the nation (39.2 deaths per million population), a statistic that has attracted considerable attention among the city's leaders and Fire Services personnel. With respect to residential fire deaths in Memphis, 1994 was the highest year in recent history (52 deaths per million population).
The Memphis Division of Fire Services asked the Behavioral Community Psychology A special thanks to Fire Director Charles E. Smith for his support in this project, and to all the firefighters and This research was supported in part by a grant from The Tobacco Institute.
Memphis Housing Authority personnel who faithfully participated in the program.