Pam Powell Let’s go back in time to capture the initial, and then ongoing work of the fi re service woman I am pro fi ling today during this 2021 Women’s History Month. We’re going to October of 1974 when the National Fire Prevention and Control Administration (NFPCA) was established. Pam Powell (Pamela) was an early pioneer of fi re prevention public education at the national level – working as a sta ff member at the NFPCA. Within local level fi re departments and the state level fi re marshal o ffi ces, it would be an understatement to say that public fi re prevention education was largely a well-kept secret and existed essentially in isolation – if at all. Beginning in 1974, to boost and support the local and state public educators that were in existence at the time, Pam was instrumental in delivering national fi re safety education conferences in an e ff ort to build a network of fi re safety educators from states and local jurisdictions. This was occurring on the heels of the groundbreaking 1973 National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control Report titled “America Burning”. In the Appendix of “America Burning” was a minority report written by Dr. Anne W. Phillips that challenged what she thought was the minimal level of attention given to prevention and education in the main body of the Report itself. One of the critical accomplishments of Pam Powell while at the NFPCA was bringing Dr. Phillips’ minority report to reality. The fi re prevention and education Let’s go back in time to capture the initial, and then ongoing work, of the fire service woman I am profiling today during this 2021 Women’s History Month. We’re going to October of 1974 when the National Fire Prevention and Control Administration (NFPCA) was established. Pamela “Pam” Powell was an early pioneer of fire prevention public education at the national level – working as a staff member at the NFPCA. Within local level fire departments and the state-level fire marshal offices, it would be an understatement to say that public fire prevention education was largely a well-kept secret and existed essentially in isolation – if at all. Beginning in 1974, to boost and support the local and state public educators that were in existence at the time, Pam was instrumental in delivering national fire safety education conferences in an effort to build a network of fire safety educators from states and local jurisdictions. This was occurring on the heels of the groundbreaking 1973 National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control Report titled America Burning. In the Appendix of America Burning was a minority report written by Dr. Anne W. Phillips that challenged what she thought was the minimal level of attention given to prevention and education in the main body of the report itself. One of the critical accomplishments of Pam Powell while at the NFPCA was bringing Dr. Phillips’ minority report to reality. The fire prevention and education conferences Pam led became a model for states body of the Report itself. One of the critical accomplishments of Pam Powell while at the NFPCA was bringing Dr. Phillips’ minority report to reality. The fi re prevention and education
12
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator