Community Programs & Public Education

The SAFE grant program provides resources for fire departments to teach fire safety education in schools.

The Student Awareness of Fire Education (SAFE) program teaches fire and life safety to children in schools. The program teaches students to recognize the dangers of fire and the fire hazards of tobacco products through 23 key fire safety behaviors taught in developmentally appropriate ways. Fire and life safety is easy to combine with math, science, language arts and health or physical education lessons, making it easy to collaborate with school teachers.

Each year, the Chelmsford Fire Department goes into classrooms to teach children about fire safety.

For more information on the SAFE Program, please visit:

• https://www.mass.gov/info-details/student-awareness-of-fire-education-safe

• https://www.mass.gov/doc/what-is-safe/download

A properly installed car seat is critical to ensuring the safety of children. Certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians provide an important service to community members by installing or checking car seats to ensure safety.

This free service is provided by the Chelmsford Fire Department to Chelmsford residents. Car seats must be provided by those requesting installation. To schedule, please visit Car Seat Installation appointments. 

Lifeguards serve to safeguard swimmers and patrons at pools and beaches. In the event of an emergency, lifeguards may be tasked with performing life saving measures and initiating emergency response protocols. To better prepare lifeguards for how a real-life incident with a fire department response may occur, we offer a Fire Department/Lifeguard Interface course. There are two components (classroom and practical) available together or as standalone pieces.

This classroom course discusses overlapping responsibilities of lifeguards and first responders, how to identify if an incident needs an EMS response, emergency response protocols, and how lifeguards may potentially work alongside fire department personnel during an incident.

For those also interested in the practical component, we offer the opportunity to conduct joint training exercises between lifeguards and fire department personnel to swim clubs, apartment and condo associations, and other interested parties. These practical exercises are based on real-life scenarios with the goal of improving overall interoperability.

For more information on the Fire Department/Lifeguard Interface program or to schedule a session, please contact the Chelmsford Fire Department Training Division at 978-364-5051.

We offer a high school cadet program as part of Chelmsford High School and Nashoba Valley Technical High School’s internship programs. This is for high school students in 11^th and 12^th grade (juniors and seniors) at Chelmsford High School and Nashoba Valley Technical High School who are interested in a career in the fire service. This internship, lasting six weeks from April to May, takes students through 

• The basics of firefighting 
• Offers a look at different career paths in the fire service 
• And provides hands-on training. 

Students interested from CHS should contact the College and Career Readiness Facilitator, and students from NVTHS should contact Student Services or Technical Program Community Services for more information. For general inquiries regarding the program, please contact the Chelmsford Fire Department Training Division at 978-364-5051.

The Mock Accident event is put on biennially by the Chelmsford Fire Department for Chelmsford High School upperclassmen. The purpose is to expose students to the dangers of drinking and driving while impaired. Students witness a mock accident response by the Fire Department involving a serious accident and the immediate aftermath and seriousness of the event.