Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services
Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services
Lawrenceville, GA
The Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services was nominated by Sharon Boston of Teacher's Pension.
The Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services (GCFES) Community Risk Reduction Division (CRR) Fire Education Section is dedicated to providing quality fire and life safety programs to residents and visitors of the county. The CRR Fire Education Section partners with two nonprofits to ensure a safe, livable, and healthy community for people of all ages and backgrounds. Safe Kids Gwinnett Coalition: The CRR Fire Education Section currently serves as the Lead Agency for the Safe Kids Gwinnett Coalition (SKG). SKG is part of the Safe Kids Georgia and Safe Kids Worldwide network of childhood injury prevention advocates and public safety professionals, which raises awareness and imparts information to reduce childhood unintentional injuries and deaths related to fire safety, water safety, child passenger safety, baby safe sleep, bicycle safety, poison prevention, pedestrian safety, and gun safety. The SKG Coalition meets regularly to discuss community activities and seeks opportunities to participate in public events to promote safety information. Gwinnett Citizen Fire Academy Alumni Association: The CRR Fire Education Section conducts a widely popular and successful Citizens Fire Academy Class (CFA) as part of its community outreach programs. For nine weeks, participants learn about the fire and emergency services department through a dynamic, hands-on program. After graduating the CFA, participants become active members of the nonprofit GCFAAA. The GCFAAA promotes fire and life safety education through support of the GCFES CRR Fire Education Section. The CRR Fire Education Section meets monthly with the GCFAAA Board to discuss the resource needs of the section for educating the community about fire and life safety hazards.
The GCFAA has become the vehicle for volunteerism in the department. Since its inception in 2003, the CRR Fire Education Section has worked tirelessly with the GCFAAA to educate a growing and diverse population and to provide the needed props and resources to teach proper fire prevention, survival practices, and life safety practices for all ages. Thanks to this partnership, the CRR Fire Education Section is able to provide items to residents such as portable fire extinguishers, stovetop cannisters (where applicable), home escape ladders (for youth firesetter cases), smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarms, night lights, and file-of-life medical information cards during home safety surveys. Because of the robust partnership between the CRR Fire Education Section and GCFAAA, the department has been able to acquire props to conduct many of its outreach programs to include crawl tunnels, smoke blankets, and floor mats for teaching home fire escape during classroom presentations and table displays at community events, allowing children and adults to understand the importance of proper fire escape practices through roleplay scenarios. These partnerships go hand in hand with the department’s overall mission of saving lives and protecting property. They meet and often exceed the department’s vision of providing the highest quality service.
The CRR Fire Education Section offers an array of educational and informative programs and services to meet the needs of a growing and diverse population. The section’s focus includes residential, school/daycare, workplace, and specialty programs. Fire Educators, Firefighters, and community volunteers work together to teach fire and life safety to children in classroom settings and during school/daycare visits with the mobile fire safety training unit (MFSTU). The MFSTU is a live interactive classroom experience that enables practice home fire escape drills. Participants are educated on proper fire extinguisher use using the Bullex digital technology. The MFSTU also includes a severe weather package that teaches what to do during inclement weather situations. Fire Educators also work with community volunteers to provide a robust residential fire safety program throughout the county. Home safety surveys are conducted. As a result, Fire Educators spend time teaching the residents about proper home escape planning, portable fire extinguisher use, and the importance of the file-of-life medical information and emergency contact card. The CRR Fire Education conducts several after fire street initiatives and neighborhood smoke alarm blitzes throughout the year to address the need for increased awareness of fire safety and the importance of smoke alarms and escape plans immediately following a fire incident in the immediate community. Fire Educators help to make the work environment safe for Gwinnett businesses by offering free programs to employees in office, retail, industrial, restaurant, and commercial facilities. Fire Educators assist businesses with fire escape planning, portable fire extinguisher use, and monitoring fire drills. Fire Educators make workplace fire safety presentations to employee groups, safety teams, and risk managers at local businesses. Specialty programs include free car seat checks, senior slip, trip, and fall presentations, community CPR classes, and caregiver certification training for child and adult caregiver facilities. The CRR Fire Education Section is the provider of the car seat mini-grant program through the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) and provides scheduled car seat education classes and car seat installs for parents in the WIC assistance program, as referred by the local health department.
The CRR Fire Education Section continually demonstrates its commitment to providing a safe, livable, and healthy community for all residents and visitors of the county. Through the department’s residential fire safety programs, there are documented saves due to conducting neighborhood smoke alarm blitzes, after fire street initiatives, and scheduled home safety surveys. Fire Educators Priya Sharma and Cristal Nowden were recognized in 2024 for installing a smoke alarm in a home that ultimately alerted the family to a fire during the middle of the night and allowed them added time to safely escape the home. In another instance, Fire Educator Rachel Larson was recognized by a resident in 2025 after she took the time during a home safety survey to teach the resident hands-only CPR. Several weeks after the interaction, the resident was able to perform CPR chest compressions on his elderly homebound father which saved his life. In 2025, the CRR Fire Education Section was recognized as a top provider by the Safesitter organization. The section earned the Bronze Level Award for the number of students taught in the previous year and the quality of the program to certify young adults through the Safesitter curriculum. As an example of the outstanding work being done each day by the dedicated and professional staff in the CRR Fire Education Section, the requests for programs have increased over the past year. Below is a glimpse of the work being done. In 2024, the CRR Fire Education Section conducted 1,789 programs in the community. Some of the highlights of the total programs delivered include, but are not limited to: - 137 Car Seat Installations - 98 CPR training sessions - 26 DPH Car Seat Classes - 36 Fire Drills - 56 Fire Safety Presentations at Schools - 777 Home Safety Surveys - 73 Mobile Fire Safety House Presentations at Schools and Daycares
These programs reached a total of 39,992 people in the community. Of the total number of people educated, 20,392 were children (aged 0-18) and 19,600 were adults (including Seniors).
The CRR Fire Education Section plays a crucial role in the overall success of the department’s reaccreditation process for the Center for Public Safety Excellence (CPSE) Accreditation. The CRR Fire Education Section’s annual program appraisal provides a comprehensive look at the accomplishments, needs, and challenges of the section to fulfill its goal of providing a safe, healthy, and livable community.
One example is the coordination between fire education, fire investigations, operations, and the prevention and enforcement section. The CRR Fire Education Section meets regularly with these divisions through the weekly operations division meetings, monthly fire investigations meetings, and prevention and enforcement weekly meetings items identified by field personnel in operations, fire investigators in CRR and fire inspectors in prevention and enforcement is used to determine public education messaging and targeting program delivery to address fire and emergency medical trends in the community.