Media Review: igot2kno.com
Fire Prevention and Safety for College Students and Young Adults
Chris Hager, Stetson University
April 2011

Igot2kno.com is a website created by the People’s Burn Foundation to educate young adults about fire safety. The website features free resources, including educational modules, YouTube videos, and answers to frequently asked questions regarding fire safety. This article provides an overview of the website and proposes methods for incorporating the use of the website into the fraternity/sorority advising profession. 

The website has two main sections that are of interest to fraternity/sorority advisors: courses and resources. The courses section features four educational modules that teach young adults about fire safety. Each module concludes with a quiz, which examines students’ understanding of the safety tips. In addition, the website enables fraternity/sorority advisors to monitor student performance as they complete the modules. This enables advisors to follow-up with fraternity/sorority members with low performance.

The first module, College Fire Survival, is a 30-minute video presentation on fire safety. The other three modules are brief, educational games entitled “Up in Smoke Cooking Game,” “Party Smart Game,” and “Fire Escape Game.” The games focus on fire safety in the kitchen, fire safety during social events, and the importance of having a fire escape plan. The modules can be useful for helping members learn about fire safety and prevention.

The resources section features informational videos that cover topics like fraternity house fires, explanations of how being intoxicated can prevent one from escaping a fire, and fire demonstrations. As noted in the resource section, many of these videos can be found on YouTube . The resources section also features posters, checklists, guides, and answers to frequently asked questions pertaining to creating an escape plan, preventing electrical fires, and using candles safely.

There are a few ways fraternity/sorority volunteers, campus-based professionals, and organization staff can use Igot2kno.com. Colleges and universities with institution-owned fraternal housing could use the website as part of a resident assistant or live-in advisor training program. The educational modules could help reinforce the importance of ensuring fraternity/sorority living environments are safe and free of fire hazards. Another way advisors could utilize the website is as part of a risk management education curriculum. Advisors can assign the educational modules to members and track member completion rates. Advisors could also use the educational modules to fulfill the risk management education requirements of accreditation programs. Lastly, advisors could use the website as part of their judicial process. Advisors might consider requiring members to complete the educational modules as a sanction for violating a risk management policy. This would especially be beneficial in situations that involved fire hazards.