TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) - Florida's Chief Financial Officer, Jeff Atwater, also doubles as the State's Fire Marshal and this week Atwater announced a new pilot program aimed at educating college students about the dangers of fire.
The program is reaching out to Greek life communities on college campuses and the State Fire Marshalls Office has partnered with the Tallahassee Fire Department to help roll out the program at Florida State University.
The Phi Gamma Delta fraternity on FSU's campus is the first Greek organization to take part in the program. Last week officials spoke with members about general fire safety, cooking safety, and how to use a fire extinguisher.
Project staff say they created the program because there was an evident need for this kind of education on college campuses.
Casia Cinco, the Bureau Chief for the Bureau of Fire Prevention for the Florida State Fire Marshall's Office explained that, "Most College age students, the last time they had fire safety prevention was in elementary school. When you ask college age students, what do you do when your house catches on fire? They say stop, drop, and roll... because that's the last education that they had... and this is a way for us to get information out to a group of active college students."
Staff say they hope to eventually launch the program at every Greek organization in Florida.
They also have plans to partner with other local fire departments across the state to make that happen.
