From the Philadelphia Fire Department:
The Philadelphia Fire Department’s Fire Prevention Unit was recently awarded a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant to purchase 4000 residential adaptive smoke alarms for distribution to the hearing-impaired residents of Philadelphia. It is our solemn mission to provide not only reactive emergency services, but also non-emergent, proactive preventative services to all residents and visitors to the City of Philadelphia 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
We are particularly excited about this award as it allows us to more adequately protect a traditionally under-served segment of our population with an emergency detection device which caters to their unique needs. For decades the PFD has installed thousands of smoke alarms, and countless lives have been saved as a result. Despite this tremendous success, deaf and hearing-impaired people were potentially at a greater risk due to a lack of technology. With the advent of more advanced detection and notification technology, those individuals are no longer at a disadvantage should a fire occur.
The next step was the catalyst for this letter. The PFD needs the assistance of community partners like yourself to act as a conduit through which we can reach as many citizens as possible who would benefit from this generous grant award. We are asking that you look at your contacts and assist us through a referral system. Once in our database we will, at the customer’s request, conduct a home safety inspection, and install an appropriate number of adaptive smoke detectors in their home. It is our hope that through your collective network we can all make a positive impact, and continue to save lives through our community-centric fire prevention program.
FireFighter Namor Brown will be the contact person for this Program. His contact info is Namor.Brown@phila.gov or Office number is 215-686-1382.