What’s so great about the BUILT FOR LIFE Fire Department Program?
Chief Robert Phillips with the Macomb Township (MI) Fire Department shares his views:
On the BUILT FOR LIFE Fire Department Program: “I just can’t stress enough what a great program it is. All of us are facing challenging economic times and when we can get this information provided to us it’s a huge asset. I would recommend it to every fire department in the country. “
Why departments should sign up: “I think it’s a tremendous program. The information and resources are invaluable. In tight economic times everything we can get to aide us in spreading fire safety education is an asset to us.”
Chief Phillips recommends the BUILT FOR LIFE Fire Department Program: “We’re on board with it and I would hope other chiefs would get on board with it too. I would hope they would embrace the concept and take advantage of all the resources and materials that are available.”
On BUILT FOR LIFE Fire Department Program recognition: “I think it validates what we’re already doing. Now we’re able to put some national recognition behind it. It makes it even more important. Not just Macomb Township, but a national effort.
Why flashover and fire side-by-side demonstrations are
so successful: “Everybody has the chance
to see it with their own eyes. So instead of us just talking
to people, they can physically see it. Once they can see
it we know that they can grasp it more. Everyone who was
at our event walked away knowing the effectiveness of sprinklers
without us telling them. Everyone was just amazed that one sprinkler
put the fire out. We had numerous comments from citizens
saying they had no idea sprinklers could do that. “
How easy it was to implement the side-by-side: “We teamed up with one of our local high schools. Their trade program students built the demos for us. It was great. And the students were there to watch the live fires too. They not only learned about the construction trade, but at a young age they also learned about sprinklers and how they work.”
On using HFSC’s burn demonstration kit: Once we had the kit it made everything so much easier. I doubt we would have been able to do it or be as successful without the kit. We were able to provide the instructions to the school and the students ran with i. The kit was definitely the tool that made it all happen.”
Why Macomb Township will do more live demonstrations: We’ve had requests from our elected officials and from the citizens to do it again. We plan to do it this fall during Fire Prevention Week. After we did the first event, our partners came to us and said they were willing to do whatever they could do again this year. We have some great relationships and I think they saw the advantage of this educational event – we had a very good turnout from our community and it was a win-win for everyone involved.”
Sign up to be a BUILT FOR LIFE Fire Department.