Fire departments in seven towns in Hampshire and Franklin counties will benefit from a combined $28,261 in state money to help them educate the public about fire prevention and safety.
In Hampshire County, Williamsburg, Chesterfield and Goshen will each receive Student Awareness of Fire Education (S.A.F.E.) and Senior S.A.F.E. grants. Ashfield, Buckland, Shelburne Falls and Shelburne Center will also receive the grants in Franklin County.
The S.A.F.E. Program provides resources for departments to teach fire and life safety to children in schools, while the aim of Senior S.A.F.E. is to reduce older adult fire deaths through fire education, according to state Sen. Adam G. Hinds (D- Pittsfield), whose office announced last week the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services is awarding $47,803 to 10 departments in Hinds’ Franklin, Hampshire, Berkshire and Hampden district.
Hinds said the S.A.F.E. and Senior S.A.F.E. programs are examples of how state government supports local officials who provide lifesaving lessons to our children and seniors.
“Over the past two decades, S.A.F.E. has significantly reduced the amount of fire-related deaths in Massachusetts — this is an impactful program,” he said.
Chesterfield, Goshen, Williamsburg, and Ashfield were each allotted $2,854 in S.A.F.E. money and $2,100 in Senior S.A.F.E money.
Delmar Haskins, who has been with Ashfield fire department for 44 years and has served as its chief for nine, said the S.A.F.E. grant will be used to send Capt. Michael Purcell to be trained to instruct schoolchildren on fire safety. Haskins said Purcell will speak to youngsters at Sanderson Academy.
Haskins said the Senior S.A.F.E. money will be used to install smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in senior citizens’ home. He said these are services his department would not be able to provide without grant funding.
“It’s money I can’t afford through my budget,” he said.
Shelburne Falls Fire/Rescue/EMS and the Shelburne Center and Buckland fire departments joined forces on a grant application filled out by Shelburne Center Fire Chief John Taylor. The departments often overlap in their fire coverage. Shelburne Falls will receive $1,996 in S.A.F.E. money and $1,605 for Senior S.A.F.E. Those figures are $1,112 and $1,131 for Shelburne Center and $1,476 and $1,305 for Buckland.
Taylor, who has been chief for at least five years, explained that the plan is to utilize the state’s fire safety curriculum to deliver instruction differently to children and to senior citizens. Taylor said younger students, at Buckland-Shelburne Elementary School, are taught about the “Stop, Drop, Cover and Roll” method of extinguishing a fire on their person. The focus for older students, at Mohawk Trail Regional High School, is reinforcing the basics of fire safety and offering pointers about how to handle emergencies in the workplace or when away at college.
Taylor said the Senior S.A.F.E. money will be used for smoke detector installation in seniors’ homes and for fire prevention education at the senior center that serves Ashfield, Buckland and Shelburne. He said there will be focus on preventing and extinguishing fire in the kitchen, where he said senior citizens are most commonly injured by burns.
Jennifer Mieth, spokeswoman for the state fire marshal’s office, said to win a S.A.F.E. grant a fire department must put together programming in conjunction with local schools and specify which grades will be targeted and how many times the schools will be visited for a presentation. She said there must also be components to measure how much the students are learning and to rate the effectiveness of the instructors. Mieth said departments earn Senior S.A.F.E. by coordinating with local senior agencies. Presentations at senior centers are not required, and departments often conduct home visits to install detectors for seniors.
Mieth said tens of thousands of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors have been installed in the four of five years since the Senior S.A.F.E. started.