Background General public need to have basic knowledge about risks by potentially reducing the likelihood of future incidents. In order to prevent accidents and even loss of life there is fire safety campaigns The objective is that the messages will give information so that the people can protect themselves and their nearest and dearest. In an effort to understand better how to make risk messages more accessible and effective the campaigns are regularly evaluated by using performance indicator.

Methods The purpose of this study is to investigate how to design an efficient fire safety campaign. Resent Finnish fire safety campaigns will be analysed by using an empirically tested model of efficient risk communication. By using the IDEA-model as an analytical tool we can find efficient risk messages. Furthermore, we will identify the weaknesses of the messages related to the behavioural intentions they will create.

Results The hypothesis of this research is that instructional risk messages will aim higher degrees of self-efficacy and behavioural intention to take appropriate action. Instructions for self-protection and focusing on receiver-oriented strategies will increase comprehension, garner desired response, and produce appropriate self-protective action.

Conclusions Official risk communicators engaged with publics, and there is ongoing interest on how such communication could be most effective, with initial questions focused on message creation but expanding to query how audiences process and act on messages. Message receiver –oriented approach is needed instead of organisation-oriented when planning the campaigns. Hence, effective fire security campaigns must be evaluated based on accurate receiver interpretations and behavioural intentions.