Introduction

This document has been developed as a companion guide to >Community Risk Assessment, A Guide for Conducting a Community Risk Assessment. The risk assessment guide has outlined methods for obtaining the data and information necessary to conduct a community risk assessment, along with the process for prioritizing identified risks. It addressed the first two planning components used to develop a Community Risk Reduction (CRR) plan: Step 1—Identify Risks, and Step 2—Prioritize Risks.

This guide will address the other four steps used develop and complete a final CRR plan. Although this guide will go into detail on CRR planning, it must be emphasized that a CRR plan need not be extremely complex or difficult to develop. The extent to which a fire department develops their plan will depend upon a variety of factors and available resources. For some departments, it may be starting with a simple plan that addresses the most common or obvious risks within a community. For others with access to more resources, a comprehensive plan may be developed.

Fire departments seeking accreditation through the >Center for Public Safety Excellence (CPSE), Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI), will need to conduct a risk assessment or analysis that goes beyond what will be presented here. The CFAI requires a comprehensive risk analysis as part of the process for developing a Standards of Cover (SOC). The CFAI’s Fire & Emergency Service Self-Assessment Manual¹ describes an inclusive 8-step process for assessment, and addresses planning elements such as defining an effective response force (ERF), fire station distribution, staffing, and apparatus to name a few. However, this guide can be used as a basis for beginning this process.

This guide will focus primarily on community risk, which is but one aspect of a complete SOC. Fire departments intending to develop an SOC should consult the CFAI manual as well as the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) standard, >NFPA 551: Guide for the Evaluation of Fire Risk Assessments. Although targeted towards individual organizations and businesses, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has published a guide entitled, Risk Management—Principles and Guidelines,² which has some useful principles that can be applied to the process.