SHREWSBURY — Chief James Vuona is pleased to announce that the Shrewsbury Fire Department has earned two grants that will help support the department’s ongoing Student Awareness of Fire Education (S.A.F.E.) programs.
Gov. Charlie Baker’s office, and the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services notified the Shrewsbury Fire Department last week of grants of $5,454 for its S.A.F.E. Program and an additional $2,800 for its Senior S.A.F.E. Program. The grants were secured through a partnership among the public schools and Shrewsbury Council on Aging.
“Proactive fire prevention and public education are the cornerstones of our department, and the S.A.F.E. grants play a vital role in making those efforts successful,” Chief Vuona said. “I’m proud of the work our firefighters do to educate the most at-risk members of our community, and we all look forward to making our programs even stronger.”
The S.A.F.E. Program is a state initiative designed to provide resources to local fire departments to conduct fire and life safety education programs for children in kindergarten through 12th grade. The program aims to enable students to recognize fire hazards and teach key safety behaviors that should be used anytime a child comes into contact with a fire. Since the S.A.F.E. program’s inception in 1995, the average annual number of child deaths caused by a fire has fallen by 72 percent in Massachusetts.
Senior S.A.F.E. is a similar program that was created to support fire safety education specifically for older adults, who are most at risk of dying in a fire in Massachusetts. The program builds on the success of the original S.A.F.E. program and helps forge a connection between fire departments and a variety of senior support agencies working in their communities.
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