Petersburg Fire Rescue & Emergency services just received a $2,000 grant that would allow the department to install 10-year smoke alarms in residential buildings throughout the city. The company awarding the grant, FM Global (Factory Mutual), made a formal presentation of the funds on Wednesday.
The department’s goal is to install these smoke detectors with 10-year lithium batteries in every home in Petersburg by 2020.
“The National Fire Protection Association says that the installation and maintenance of a home smoke alarm cuts the likelihood of dying [in a fire] in that home by half,” says Petersburg Fire Chief Dennis Rubin. “Petersburg over the last year suffered one fire fatality... so besides that one, we have not experienced any others. With the tremendous help of Factory Mutual, we will be able to get that closer and closer to zero.”