Fire Department Receives Education Grant

The Rosemount Fire Department was recently included in a national grant to increase fire safety through in-home smoke detector installations and education sessions.

“We’re out there proactively educating,” said Carl Bourdages, public education coordinator for the Rosemount Fire Department.

The fire department used the grant funding to target approximately 180 homes in the Rosemount Woods community. These homes have experienced a higher incidence of winter fire calls due to the use of space heaters, stoves and other alternate heat sources. Rosemount Fire Department representatives visited the homes to perform installations and to educate the residents about smoke detector maintenance and preventative safety for winter heating.

The fire department performed installations on Dec. 6 and Dec. 13. They are planning a third round of on-site installation visits in February.

Rosemount was one of five cities to receive grant funding, the net total of which was $949,000. The grant was awarded to the Institution of Fire Engineers by the Department of Homeland Security Fire Prevention and Safety grant program to continue the work of the Vision 20/20 project, a national umbrella organization that receives funding specifically for fire prevention. 

Bourdages stated that Rosemount has never participated in anything similar to this in the past and that installation and education programs are much more common in larger cities on the east coast or southwest. Other cities selected for the grant include Alexandria VA, Cleveland OH, Palm Beach County FL and Washington DC.

According to Ed Comeau, communications manager for the Vision 20/20 project, the grant recipients were intentionally chosen to be drastically different from one another to prove that the goals of the grant can be met anywhere. The grant is intended to be successful in communities both large and small, whether the fire departments are paid or volunteer.

“It’s beneficial to any community,” said Comeau. “It’s the education that is so vitally important.”

For more information about how to prevent house fires, check out the Rosemount Fire Department website.