The Fire Prevention Bureau is the inspection, education, and enforcement division of the fire department. The Bureau focuses on providing life safety services through code enforcement and inspections during the new business development process, general fire inspections, operating and special use permitting and complaint investigation.

A relatively recent concept in the fire service is to look at fire prevention through a different lense - Community Risk Reduction.  Community Risk Reduction focuses traditional fire prevention measures on hazards specific to the community we serve.  An effective Community Risk Reduction Program utilizes a wide variety of tools to form a strategic and integrated program focused on reducing the occurrence and impact of local risks.  The “5 E's” is one of the strategies used to combat local fire and preventable injury issues.

EDUCATION is the first piece of the CRR Puzzle - Fire prevention and safety education programs are critical to reduce deaths and injuries resulting from emergencies. Communities, working in conjunction with national and local organizations, the fire department, and their citizens, must bring together stakeholders and resources to prepare for emergencies.

ENGINEERING is the second piece of the CRR Puzzle - The best strategy for fire prevention and safety is a layered approach. It is critical to include multiple layers of active and passive fire protection features including fire sprinklers and smoke alarms in both commercial AND residential buildings!

ENFORCEMENT is the third piece of the CRR Puzzle - A significant component of fire prevention is inspection and code enforcement, not only in existing occupied buildings, but in buildings under construction.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE is the fourth piece of the CRR Puzzle - an effective emergency response (fire departments, EMS providers, and law enforcement agencies) requires sufficient personnel, sufficient equipment, adequate response times, and trained responders.  Scientific evidence indicates if fire department resources are deployed to match the risk levels, the community becomes less vulnerable to firefighter and civilian injuries and deaths, and property loss.

ECONOMIC INCENTIVE is the fifth piece of the CRR Puzzle - there are multiple ways for communities to provide economic incentives to promote fire safety and prevention. For example, departments often install free smoke alarms through a canvasing program. Another example is local governments offering a one-time reduction in property taxes for retrofitting a home with sprinklers or offering developers economic incentives for installing home fire sprinklers.