Fire Safety & Prevention: 6 Questions with Deputy Chief Dominick Brown - MetroFamily Magazine
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Fire Safety & Prevention: 6 Questions with Deputy Chief Dominick Brown

provided by OKC Fire Department

by Erin Page

Reading Time: 5 minutes 

Deputy Chief Dominick Brown shares fire prevention safety tips, how the community can prevent wildfires in Oklahoma and the free programs families can make use of from the Oklahoma City Fire Department.

Brown is deputy chief of prevention services for the Oklahoma City Fire Department and also serves as the fire marshal for the City of Oklahoma City. Brown has served the city for 20 years, and prior to his 2024 promotion to his current role, served as battalion chief of operations. He and his wife have been married for nearly 30 years and have two sons.

MetroFamily’s Community Leader series highlights prominent community leaders across various sectors in Oklahoma City. Focused on topics pertinent to parents and families, each installment provides insights and perspectives from those shaping our community.

What does the job of a deputy chief of prevention services entail?

I have three work sections I’m responsible for: community risk reduction, code compliance and investigation. Community risk reduction prepares, educates, equips and ensures we can prevent fire and injury to those in the community. Code compliance involves making sure businesses and residents are compliant with proper safety features, like proper access to exits, fire suppression systems, alarms and fire extinguishers, so they have the greatest chance of survival in the event of an emergency. The Fire Investigators determine what caused a fire but are also looking for trends to better address the needs of the community going forward. For example, if there is an area where smoke alarms were not present in the home during a fire emergency, we will go door to door in that area and install free smoke alarms.

In light of the recent wildfires in California, what steps should families in Oklahoma take to ensure safety and preparedness?

Wild fires in Oklahoma represent a real risk. Oklahoma City is 622 square miles, covering four counties and making it one of the largest cities in the country. Through our wildland prevention education, we offer free wildfire risk assessments for families. We will come out and look at and around your home and provide information and education that can assist you to be as prepared as possible in the event of a wildfire. This service helps identify potential hazards around homes and provides fire prevention safety tips for reducing risk. Our goal is safety for you and your property.

What are some key things families can do to prevent fires in and around their homes?

In the immediate zone around the home (zero to five feet from your house), make sure vegetation is cleared away and your landscape is in great condition. Instead of mulch or wood chips in flower beds, consider using stones or gravel. Keep your gutters cleaned out as well. These small fire prevention safety tips can significantly reduce risks during dry conditions that can lead to wild fires in Oklahoma.

Additionally, make sure you don’t have firewood stacked against the house. You also don’t want big tree limbs hanging over your home or porch. If you have a lot of growth or vegetation, clean that up as much as possible. Firewise.org is an amazing resource with even more tips on how to keep your home safe.

How can families access those free smoke alarms from the fire department?

First, you’ll notice we say smoke alarm and not smoke detector. The purpose is not to just detect smoke, it’s to alarm you to get out.

We not only provide free smoke alarms, we will also come and install them so they are compliant with standards, plus they have a 10-year battery life. They are available to any City of Oklahoma City resident. We put them in every bedroom and outside bedrooms in hallways. You can call 405-316-BEEP, or you can call a station near you, the fire administration or fire marshal’s office. You can also go online to our website.

What other education programs are available for families?

We offer several programs, many of which focus on fire prevention safety tips, but we also have injury prevention programs. We offer nine programs to residents, business owners and other departments within the city.

Stop the Bleed addresses the number one cause of preventable death from injuries — bleeding. We want to train the community how to stop or slow down bleeding in an emergency until help arrives. If you simply put a hand and hold tightly to the area that’s bleeding, that improves outcomes for people. This program allows us to partner with the community and make them part of the solution.

Many of us are in the sandwich generation, taking care of kids and aging parents. The Steps to Safety trains seniors on fire and fall prevention in the home. Adults over the age of 65 are twice as likely to be killed or injured in a fire; those over 75 years of age are three times as likely and those over the age of 85 are four times as likely to be killed or injured in a fire. We will come out and do an assessment for free. It covers things like proper use of heaters in the home and trip and slip hazards. This allows us to equip and set up seniors for success and keep some of their independence.

provided by OKC Fire Department

Our Youth Fire Setter Prevention & Intervention Program addresses youth fire play. We help educate youth and families to prevent catastrophic incidents. If we have a youth who’s been involved with fire play, they may just be curious;   we want to help that individual learn about the dangers and look for healthy programs to get them involved in. We want to give them the best opportunity to be a functioning member of society.

We also offer hands-only CPR training. This is geared toward folks without medical training to learn how to respond during cardiac emergencies. Again, this allows citizens to contribute to the overall safety in the community until trained help arrives. Our dispatchers can also talk people through these steps when you call during an emergency.

For businesses, we offer an emergency operations and action plan. This ensures you know how to respond in an emergency at your place of business.

We can provide our programs to schools, businesses and City of Oklahoma City employees. If you’re interested in any of these programs, you can visit OKC.gov and fill out a request for service form.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

What I enjoy most is engaging with people — whether it’s within our department or out in the community having meaningful conversations. Sharing information is key to what we do. I enjoy knowing we are all making an impact together.

We have amazing people on our team, and we are working collectively to prevent, inform, educate and prepare. We are fortunate that we get to engage with the community, but unlike when I was riding on a fire truck, it doesn’t have to be just during an emergency.

We call it untraceable data; that means that through training, education and preparedness, the emergencies never happen. It may not be glamorous, but I’m excited about avoiding emergencies and providing information to our community that contribute to building a safe, secure and thriving community.

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