How can residents and neighbors be more proactive about fire prevention and safety?
As with police and emergency management, we rely on community leaders and associations, homeowners as well, to let us know if there’s a dangerous situation out there. Obviously we can’t be in every street corner and every home so we rely on our neighbors to be the eyes and ears for us. Also, with the nature of today’s economy and the foreclosures taking place everywhere, the cost of home heating oil rising, as we look into the winter months, these are huge concerns for us as a fire department. What will happen to the people who’ve become displaced from their homes? What alternative measures will they take to heat their homes? So we’re deeply concerned about what’s going to happen this winter and are keeping in contact with other city agencies to make sure we continue to communicate with each other about the things that we are seeing and how to prepare for the upcoming winter season. Of course, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are always a focus of our outreach and education efforts
