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Westwood Minute/Darlene Wong Cancell. Westwood Fire Station 2 is pictured above, on Washington Street.
1-15-2023 12:47am
Westwood Fire Receives Over $20,000 in Grants for Equipment, Fire Safety Education in Schools
Darlene Cancell
Editor
Westwood Fire Department (WFD) is the recipient of over $20,000 in recent grants that will be applied to student fire safety education and equipment for the department, according to Carolyn Wade, Public Information Officer for WFD.
WFD received a Firefighter Safety Equipment Grant in the amount of $15,258.99 from the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security and the Department of Fire Services. The grant will be used to purchase three new portable radios and a mobile accountability system which tracks incident personnel and different task.
Additionally, WFD along with fire departments of neighboring towns, was a recipient of the Student Awareness of Fire Education (S.A.F.E.) grants. S.A.F.E. grants are awarded to bring firefighter-educators into the classrooms of students in grades pre-K through 12. The lessons conducted under S.A.F.E. grants aim to teach children fire prevention, survival, and emergency response, including "Stop, Drop and Roll." Westwood Fire Department was awarded $4,381 for the student program, and also received an additional $2,277 for the Senior S.A.F.E. program.
Norwood Fire Department and Canton Fire Department were each also awarded the same grant amounts, $4,381 and $2,277 for the S.A.F.E. student and senior programs, respectively. The funding allows the departments to provide fire safety and prevention education directly to students and seniors.
According to the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services (MA DFS), since the S.A.F.E. program was introduced in 1995, the average annual number of fire deaths of children has decreased by 78 percent, to 4.9 child fire deaths per year.
Between the years 1969 to 1964, before the S.A.F.E. program, MA DFS reports that the average number of child fire deaths per year was 22.3.
MA DFS also notes that since 1995, there have been 383 documented cases of children who have used fire safety lessons learned in the classroom to save themselves or another person.
