Greenwood Rural Volunteer Fire Department to Bolster Fire Prevention Efforts with FM Global Grant

 

WEATHERFORD, Texas — Greenwood Rural Volunteer Fire Department has received a $3,750 fire prevention grant from FM Global, one of the world’s largest commercial property insurers.

 

FM Global representative Joyce Dunkerley presented the check to Chief Luis Ramos at the Greenwood Rural Volunteer Fire Department located just west of the city of Weatherford. The award will be used to assist with pre-fire planning to efficiently collect and track data related to local commercial buildings.  The information will help the fire service respond in an emergency situation.

 

Assistant Chief John Burgoyne said “We really appreciate this grant from FM Global. We will use the funding to acquire a ruggedized laptop that can be used in our apparatus, and software for incident pre-planning. This grant will allow our department to be more proactive and less reactive in fire prevention. We have an intern from the Weatherford College Fire Sciences Program who is constructing a database of businesses in our fire district. Our day-crew will then visit each business and pre-plan how we would fight a fire at that location. They will gather information such as where utilities are located, local contact information and any hazardous materials on site. That information will assist our crews in an emergency. Having that kind of information available prior to a fire will be invaluable.”

 

Lieutenant Ben Roberts, project leader for the pre-planning system said “We have wanted to build a pre incident planning system for a couple of years but just couldn’t find the funding for this project. We really appreciate what FM Global has done for us.”

 

Because fire continues to be the leading cause of property damage worldwide, during the past 35 years FM Global has contributed millions of dollars in fire prevention grants to fire service organizations around the globe. Locally, the company has awarded grants to a number of North Central Texas based organizations.

 

Chief Ramos added “Our first target will be all the commercial buildings in the Greenwood area but we will also be able to use these tools to do residential pre-planning. It’s important to know how many children reside in a structure, where their bedrooms are, total number of residents, gate codes, types and locations of utilities, fuel load and things like that. This project will be very important for our residents as well as owners of commercial buildings.”

 

“At FM Global, we strongly believe the majority of property damage is preventable, not inevitable,” said Michael Spaziani, manager of the fire prevention grant program. “Far too often, inadequate budgets prevent organizations like Greenwood from working as proactively as they would like to. With additional financial support, grant recipients are actively helping to improve property risk in the communities they serve.”

 

Through its Fire Prevention Grant Program, FM Global awards grants quarterly to fire departments—as well as national, state, regional, local and community organizations worldwide—that best demonstrate a need for funding, where dollars can have the most demonstrable impact on preventing fire, or mitigating the damage it can quickly cause.

 

To learn more about FM Global’s Fire Prevention Grant Program, or to apply for a grant, please visit www.fmglobal.com/grants.