Town of Munster Indiana

Public education is the process of changing people's attitudes and behavior related to safety. Most fires and injuries can be prevented with changed behavior.

Public education seeks to change a person's attitude about his or her personal safety and wellness, resulting in changed behavior. Public education uses many methods to achieve its goal, including presentations at schools, programs at community events, news stories, and public service announcements.

The Public Education Division of the Munster Fire Department is tasked for providing the public with information and resources to prevent not only fires, but also to reduce or prevent injuries and death from causes unrelated to fire. Each year our firefighters are dispatched to more emergency calls for unintentional injuries and accidents  than for actual fire related emergencies.

Since 1995, the Public Education Division, under the direction of Todd Apato, has made quite an impact in the Northwest Indiana area.  In 1996, the Munster Fire Department acquired a mobile Fire Safety House from the Ronald McDonald Children's Charities through a grant.  This unit, which to date, has been visited by over 25,000 children, has been a mainstay of the fire safety programs.  Then, in 2004, the Public Education Division was awarded a federal grant for the purchase of a mobile fire safety interactive robot (Freddy the Fire Truck), computers, burn simulator and smoke detectors for our ongoing Safe Babies program.