Among the ways they tried to capture students' attention was by dealing directly with alcohol issues and how they connect to fire dangers, Shaw said. The video uses scenes from parties to show how fires can start in those situations and goes through strategies that can be used to avoid fire disasters. For example, the fire department encourages students who host a party to designate ahead of time one person who will walk through the house during the event and when the party ends to ensure candles are blown out and cigarettes are properly extinguished. They also tell students what to do should they be in a fire. But if they see people who look like themselves, party scenes that look like parties they've been at, with students doing things that they have done, then that's something that they hopefully will take with them and keep with them.
Prevention is hit in the film, but there is also a very powerful survival message here.
Other scenes were shot at campuses across the country. The video has been shown to groups of UW-Eau Claire students as well as campus housing officials. Another grant has been submitted for additional monies to do a nationwide distribution of the video, Fuerbringer said. The first time we showed it to our students, when it ended it was two minutes before anyone said a word. When they did talk they said things like they were going home to check on the batteries in their smoke alarms or that from now on they were going to have someone watch for fire hazards during a party.