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Orono Fire Needs Assessment <br />41 | Page <br /> <br />the community, identifying the highest priority risks, and developing and implementing <br />strategies designed to mitigate the risks.”10 <br />A fire department needs to review and understand the importance of fire prevention and public <br />education, appreciating their role in the planning process of a community. Community Risk <br />Reduction Program components are public fire and life safety education, fire code enforcement <br />and fire cause investigation. <br />3.6.6 Fire and Life Safety Education <br />Providing fire and life safety education to the public to minimize the number of emergencies <br />while training the community to take the appropriate actions when an emergency occurs is <br />essential to a fire and life safety program. These programs provide the best chance for <br />minimizing the effects of fire, injury and illness to the community. Today, public fire and injury <br />prevention education is much more important than in the past. This is the result of evolving <br />community expectations, coupled with the realization by the fire department that community <br />engagement and safety education outreach can build tremendous community support. <br />Currently, the Long Lake Fire Department does very little community fire and life safety <br />education. It is enormous time burden on the POC firefighters. Common best practice is to <br />have members of the fire inspector and duty crew perform this function. <br />3.6.7 Fire and Life Safety Code Enforcement <br />The most effective way to combat fires is to prevent them. A strong fire prevention program, <br />based on locally identified risks, reduces loss of property, life and the often-crippling impact on <br />a community’s economy. Currently, this enforcement is performed on all new construction and <br />on a complaint basis. There isn’t a program set up to perform annual inspections on <br />commercial and/or rental properties. A routine inspection program is common best practice <br />for a city the size of Orono. <br />3.6.8 Fire Cause and Origin Investigation <br />An essential element of a community risk reduction program is determining the cause of a fire. <br />By identifying a cause and potential trends enables the department to provide specific public <br />information and fire prevention education to prevent reoccurrence. Currently, fire <br />investigation is handled by a team of investigators from Hennepin County Fire Departments and <br />the State Fire Marshal’s Office. In the past, the Long Lake Fire Department had a firefighter on <br />the Hennepin County Team but it is an enormous time commitment for a POC firefighter. <br /> <br />10 NFPA Standard 1730: Organizing and Deployment of Fire Prevention Inspection and Code Enforcement, Plan <br />Review, Investigation and Public Education Operations, 2019 Edition.