The Albemarle County Fire and Rescue department announced Wednesday they will begin a new initiative known as Project RISK (Residential, Inspections, Smoke Alarms, Knowledge).
Through the program, the county hopes to target a single problem — a lack of smoke alarms — to bring down residential civilian fire casualties, which includes severe injuries and deaths.
According to the analysis, poverty is the top indicator for risk of fire injury and loss. Howard Lagomarsino, the division chief of Albemarle County Fire and Rescue, said 76 percent of injuries or deaths occur in areas identified in the 2011 social service report as impoverished.
“As we looked more into that data, we found out that 69 percent of our residential fires were in those same [impoverished] areas,” Lagomarsino said. “Looking further into the data, we found out that only 23 percent of the time did those folks involved in severe injuries or deaths did they have a smoke alarm that worked.”
The department research is being funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program. Albemarle County is only matching five percent of the program’s $99,400 total cost. The rest is coming from the FEMA grant.
Officials said the program will require 1,000 staff hours, which will cost roughly $23,000 and will be covered by the grant.
The department aims to reach 1,000 homes and install 2,000 smoke alarms.
“The plan is to visit homes [and] offer them working smoke alarms if they don’t have any,” Lagomarsino said. “We'll put them up in the proper places and then offer them some training and some information on how to protect themselves from fire and how to get out if they were to have a fire.”
Lagomarsino said the department hopes to see a 25 percent reduction in fire loss and fire casualties. This would, in turn, reduce three to four casualties per year. Reaching this goal would result in an additional $1 million reduction in costs, he said.
Though one of the best ways to reduce residential fires is through a sprinkler system, the department does not have the political support or physical ability to require a sprinkler standard, which is already stated in the state fire code. The department focus on fire alarms comes as the next-best alternative.
"One of the things that we preach is that when the smoke alarm goes off, get out,” Lagomarsino said. “One of the things that we found is that over 60 percent of the injuries occurred because people didn't leave. They tried to fight the fire.”
Read More
Honor Committee, Class Councils offer resources for students during exam season
By Lidia Zur Muhlen and Brandon Kile | YesterdayEvery semester, the Honor Committee utilizes a portion of its roughly $5 million endowment to fund its finals season initiatives.
University sees increase in fraudulent emails and phishing attempts
By Bertie Azqueta | 4 days agoSome of these phishing attempts come from @virginia.edu email addresses, making it more challenging for University Outlook users to differentiate fraudulent emails.
Faculty Senate discusses proposal to separate faculty position renewal from promotion
By Lexie Stadler | 5 days agoAGF are non-tenure-track professors who hold roles primarily focused on teaching, research, academic librarianship and clinical service.
