Instead of just fighting fires, Hanley’s volunteer fire department is focussing its efforts on preventing them.
The Town of Hanley recently received a $2,410 (US) fire prevention grant from FM Global, a large commercial property insurance company.
The fire department will use the money to develop pre-fire planning to efficiently collect and track data related local to buildings. This will help firefighters to respond to emergencies and it will assist in their training.
Specifically, the funds will be used for courses to train members to do fire inspections, says Hanley’s administrator Darice Carlson. The funds will also be used to buy a laptop computer and special software that will help firefighters preplan their fire response.
“At FM Global, we strongly believe the majority of property damage is preventable, not inevitable,” says Michael Spaziani, manager of the fire prevention grant program. “Far too often, inadequate budgets prevent those organizations working to prevent fire from being as proactive as they would like to be. With additional financial support, grant recipients are actively helping to improve property risk in the communities they serve.”
The fire prevention grants are awarded quarterly to fire departments and municipal and community organizations worldwide that best demonstrate a need for funding and where the money can have a demonstrable impact on preventing fire or mitigating the damage it can quickly cause.