The Firehouse Yak: Daniel Byrne, Laura Kondor, Ben Shearer – Where is Community Risk Reduction Today
Peter Matthews talks with Daniel Byrne, Laura Konor and Ben Shearer about new approaches to Community Risk Reduction (CRR) and fire prevention in 2024, and what has changed with public outreach since COVID-19. Byrne is an assistant chief with the Burton, SC, Fire District, Kondor is fire safety coordinator for the North Charleston, SC, Fire Department and Shearer is community risk reduction specialist with the Pasco, WA, Fire Department.
They discuss how COVID-19 impacted the fire service’s reach in-person reach, whether through in-school visits, open houses, or community events and how that created a shift to digital learning. Since then, some departments have had more requests than ever from the community, forcing them to select the groups they meet with to talk about life safety.
The group shares advice for Fire Prevention Week success and year-round outreach concept that help fire departments connect with their communities at multiple levels. The three talk about how they have partnered with organizations and used fire department data to target education to certain groups, and close out the show with CRR wins and losses from their views.
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Peter Matthews | Editor-in-Chief/Conference Director
Peter Matthews is the conference director and editor-in-chief of Firehouse. He has worked at Firehouse since 1999, serving in various roles on both Firehouse Magazine and Firehouse.com staffs. He completed an internship with the Rochester, NY, Fire Department and served with fire departments in Rush, NY, and Laurel, MD, and was a lieutenant with the Glenwood Fire Company in Glenwood, NY. Matthews served as photographer for the St. Paul, MN, Fire Department.
Daniel Byrne
DANIEL BYRNE is a community support officer for the Burton Fire District, Beaufort County, SC, and a retired assistant fire chief of training for the Georgia Air National Guard 165th Fire Department. A third-generation firefighter, he holds an associate degree and a bachelor’s degree in fire science as well as a master’s degree in public administration and disaster management. Byrne is an alumnus of the National Fire Academy. He received state and local awards for public relations and educational programs as well as community partnerships and served as a conference presenter and keynote speaker.
Laura Kondor
Laura Kondor is the fire safety coordinator/captain for North Charleston, SC, Fire Department. Her position entails managing all educational programs for businesses, non-profits, schools, and residential groups. Additionally, she manages the department's digital media platforms and supports the public information officer. Kondor received a bachelor’s degree in interior design with a minor in studio art and owned her own business as licensed South Carolina general contractor for several years. She has been in emergency services for 15 years, starting as a volunteer firefighter for a rural fire department. She started with North Charleston Fire Department in 2017 as the full-time fire and life safety educator. Kondor is certified as a Fire and Life Safety Educator II, Youth Firesetting Prevention and Intervention Manager, Car Passenger Seat Technician/Instructor, Fire Instructor II, Fire Officer II and Advanced Public Information Officer.
Ben Shearer
Ben Shearer has worked for the Pasco, WA, Fire Department since 1989 and has consistently advocated for a planned education campaign for the community. He has spent the last seven years moving the department toward a Community Risk Reduction approach and is always looking for new programs to build a better quality of life for the residents of Pasco. Shearer is the chair of the Washington Public Educators and the NFPA-Washington State Educational Representative, where he gets to share his passion for helping other departments and agencies build their risk reduction efforts.
