CSB's Ghent Video Wins Educational Award
The safety video about the propane explosion at a convenience store that killed four people in Ghent, W.Va., was honored by MERLOT with the Fire Safety Editorial Board Classics Award.
One of the safety videos that the U.S. Chemical Safety Board provides on its own site and on YouTube has won the agency a top educational award. On Aug. 13, the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) presented a Fire Safety Editorial Board Classics Award in the category of "Exemplary Materials" to CSB for its video explaining the lessons to be learned from the January 2007 propane explosion at a convenience store in Ghent, W.Va., in which four people -- propane technicians and emergency responders -- died.
CSB Director of Public Affairs Dr. Daniel Horowitz accepted the award at a MERLOT conference in San Jose, Calif. "We are pleased to have this recognition of the CSB Safety Video program. Our videos have been played millions of times online, and we have distributed almost 100,000 free DVDs to chemical safety stakeholders, including members of the public," he said.
Horowitz was scheduled to give a presentation on the CSB safety video program during the conference on Aug. 15.
MERLOT's Web site (www.merlot.org) features more than 20,000 teaching and learning materials in many disciplines. A peer review board in fire safety called the CSB "Half an Hour to Tragedy" video "extremely effective" and recommended it for "Motivation and training for first responders and those working in the HazMat response professions, including initial and recurrent training."
"We are honored by this award," said CSB Chairman John Bresland. "Our safety videos visually reinforce the information gathered in our official CSB investigations of chemical accidents, such as the tragedy that struck the convenience store in Ghent. We thank MERLOT for the recognition and are pleased particularly that the Fire Safety Editorial Board found so much to recommend in our video."