Spirit of Shrewsbury
Fire Stations Open House
Saturday & Sunday - Sept 27th & 28th - 10:00am – 3:00pm
Headquarters - 11 Church Street
Centech – Centech Drive
Lake Station – Harrington Ave
Dedication of Headquarters – Saturday Sept 27th, 12:00noon followed by a Presentation to Barbara Donohue – in honor of her generosity to the Shrewsbury Fire Department.
Refreshments to follow
We welcome all visitors to walk through our brand new and/or refurbished fire stations, fire trucks will be available for viewing at each site.
SAFE trailer will be on-site at Headquarters and open 10-3 Saturday & Sunday
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As administrators of public safety, fire personnel must handle fires, motor vehicle accidents, collapses, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and medical emergencies. These events remain, as always, unscheduled and unpredictable. These incidents are time sensitive, life threatening, and labor intensive. You never know when they will occur, but when they do, you need lots of trained people immediately.
Safety and accountability of our firefighters is paramount in all that we do. Improving our safety is an ongoing function. The department continues to move forward with the implementation of an Incident Management System. All members of the department are now trained in the application of this system. The result is increased safety, professionalism, increased proficiency, and most importantly, increased accountability of each other. It has been a costly program but the results are worth far more than the cost.
Project Alarm continues to be a great success. Nearly 500 homes in Shrewsbury have had smoke detectors installed free of charge by the firefighters. The semi-annual signup takes place in cooperation with the Council on Aging at the Senior Center. Seniors are encouraged to contact the fire department if they have no smoke detector protection or if they require battery change-outs. The program is free, due to the generous contribution of detectors by the State Department of Fire Services, batteries direct from the Energizer Bunny, and the cooperation of the firefighters.
Fire Prevention Education is an important function within the Fire Department. The Safety Awareness and Fire Education (S.A.F.E.) Program has been delivered by specially trained firefighters and officers, through the school system, to every pre-high-school student. Shrewsbury has seen juvenile fire-setting reduced nearly to zero and this program is what is responsible for that fact. The SAFE team also delivers age-appropriate safety classes to our seniors. Annually, the firefighters sponsor a cook-out at the Senior Center and serve up burgers, dogs, and safety lessons.
Weapons of Mass Destruction in the post 9-11 era has been the primary focus that we are increasing our awareness of and educating ourselves about. To this end we are working on interoperability both inside and outside the town and developing agreements with our neighboring towns as well. Shrewsbury has an active and dynamic Local Emergency Planning Committee including town directors, most department heads, business associates, experts in respective fields, and interested citizenry. In this area of the state, no one jurisdiction can handle a catastrophic event alone. This fundamental fact is driving neighboring towns to look toward regionalizing some asset inventories as well as training district/regional teams to respond with and operate the regional assets being assembled. Shrewsbury will be in the mix of these regional teams and in cases where our safety is particularly threatened will take the lead to see that the teams become operational. |
