WINDSOR, N.S. — The Windsor Fire Department will soon be installing some modernized equipment on their trucks thanks to a grant from a United States-based company.
The department recently received funding from FM Global, one of the world’s largest commercial property insurers, to help them purchase mobile data terminals for two of their fire trucks.
Jamie Juteau, Windsor’s fire chief, said he learned of the funding through speaking with one of the captains in Bridgetown. The Windsor-based department decided to apply and they were selected out of several hundred applications.
The US $1,650 grant will go towards equipping the trucks with digital gear to aid firefighters while en route to calls.
“Back in the day, and even today, to a degree, a lot of our pre-planning information is in binders — we have to look it up manually and the dispatcher has to relay it back,” said Juteau, noting the grant will assist with pre-fire planning to efficiently collect and track data related to local community buildings.
“As I’m on the way to a call, I can look up hazards at the location that I’m going to or directions to a call that’s not in my district that I’m not sure how to get to,” he said.
“Situational awareness is basically having information at our fingertips as we’re responding to a fire to make our response more efficient.”
Because fire continues to be the leading cause of property damage worldwide, FM Global has contributed millions of dollars in fire prevention grants over the past 40 years.
“At FM Global, we strongly believe the majority of property damage is preventable, not inevitable,” said Michael Spaziani, FM Global’s assistant vice president and manager of the fire prevention grant program, in a press release.
“Far too often, inadequate budgets prevent those organizations working to prevent fire from being as proactive as they would like to be. With additional financial support, grant recipients are actively helping to improve property risk in the communities they serve.”
The Fire Prevention Grant Program awards funding to fire departments that best demonstrate a need for funding, where the monies can have the most demonstrable impact on preventing fire, or mitigating fire damage.
Juteau said he’d recommend other Nova Scotian volunteer fire departments to apply for funding.
“There are a lot of departments that can benefit from this partnership.”
To learn more about FM Global’s Fire Prevention Grant Program, visit www.fmglobal.com/fireservice.
