During the early to mid 1970’s Maine held the distinction of having one of the highest burn injury rates in the United States. Making matters worse was the fact that most of these burn injuries were to children. Across the country the U.S. Fire Service began to take note of fires started by children and the number of injuries and deaths resulting from those fires. It was around this same time that a trauma physician at Portland’s Maine Medical took note of the burn injury rate and took action to address it.
In 1976 Dr. Richard Britton brought together a group of community professionals he thought could have an impact on this problem. The group consisted of trauma physicians, burn nurses, fire service professionals, an attorney and several other community leaders. The group was formalized under the name of the Pine Tree Burn Foundation. Their first mission was to raise funds to build Burn Care Units at Maine Medical Center in Portland and Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. As word of the Foundation spread fire service leaders throughout the state pledged their support and dedicated themselves to raising the necessary funds. Collaborative efforts began to take shape with organizations such as the Maine Fire Chief’s Association and the Maine State Federation of Firefighters. The Federation pledged their financial support with profits from sponsoring bowling tournaments throughout the state. The burn units were completed and operational in 1982. Dr. Britton determined that the mission of the Foundation had been met and believed they could terminate the organization.
Portland District Fire Chief Steve Hasson, a member of the Foundation, was convinced that while they had addressed the cure for burn injury, they had not addressed the cause. Hasson had just attended a presentation at the National Fire Protection Association in Quincy, MA on their new fire safety education program called Learn Not To Burn. He convinced Dr. Britton and other members of the Foundation that educating our children in fire safety was the key to preventing the burn injury problem in the state. The Pine Tree Burn Foundation undertook this new cause and set out in a new direction. Funds were raised, again through bowling tournaments, to provide curriculum to schools across the state. The Foundation would purchase the curriculum from NFPA and South Portland Fire Chief Phil McGouldrick would travel the state doing teacher in-service trainings at absolutely no cost to the school. The Foundation also provided other materials such as Sparky-the-Fire Dog costumes, talking fire hydrant robots, and other tools to fire departments and schools to spread the fire safety education message. Through the next several years Learn Not To Burn was implanted in most elementary schools in Maine.
In 1988, the Foundation presented the 1st Fire and Life Safety Education Conference under the direction of South Portland Firefighter Phil Nason. Phil coordinated the next nine conferences. It is still the only fire and life safety conference offered in the state. Phil has since passed away but the conference continues in his memory.
In 1998, at the Foundation’s 10th Annual Fire and Life Safety Education Conference, Dr. David Clark, Trauma Chief at Maine Medical Center, announced that due to the efforts of the Pine Tree Burn Foundation and fire departments with Public Fire Education Programs, the burn injury problem in Maine had been significantly impacted. Dr. Clark announced that MMC no longer needed a dedicated burn unit. Burn injuries could now be treated within the trauma unit. He acknowledged this event as only being possible through the outstanding efforts of the Pine Tree Burn Foundation.
Today the Foundation continues to provide fire and life safety education materials to schools, fire departments and the general public. The Foundation recognizes that unintentional injury to children is still a problem in our state and has rededicated its mission to address the problem. It has adopted NFPA’s Risk Watch program as the safety curriculum of choice and will continue to work to see its implementation in all Maine schools.
In 2008, the Foundation joined forces with the Maine Juvenile Fire Safety Program at Southern Maine Community College, in cooperation with the Maine State Fire Marshal’s Office, to present the 20th Annual Fire and Life Safety Education Conference in October. This landmark conference addressed the issues of juvenile firesetting and reaching high risk audiences such as the elderly, the very young, the impoverished and the disabled. National experts presented this very important conference.
