10 | GREENVILLE JOURNAL | 07.03.2015 | NEWS
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8/21/13 11:28 AM
Fire department leads charge to prevent deaths BENJAMIN JEFFERS | STAFF
bjeffers@communityjournals.com Many Upstate homes don’t have enough smoke detectors to be safe, says Greenville Fire Inspector Will Broscious. At minimum, residences should have a smoke alarm in each bedroom and at least one additional alarm both outside the sleeping area and in the common area, Broscious says. Broscious is helping lead the efforts of the Greenville City Fire Department (GCFD) to ramp up public education about fire safety. In 2014, fire fatalities in the state increased 35 percent over the previous year. Greenville Fire Chief Steve Kovalcik recently authorized the formation of a 20-member Community Risk Reduction Team, which he tasked with public education, youth fire-setter intervention programs, post-fire response programs and other efforts designed to prevent fires and other catastrophic events. The push for stronger fire prevention programs started in 2013, Broscious said, when Kovalcik asked him to spearhead fire safety programs. He said smoke alarm blitzes have proved “a huge home run right from the very beginning.” Members of the fire department go door-to-door through city neighborhoods, making sure homes are properly protected. The response has been immediately positive, he said.
Since the beginning of the program GCFD has visited about 500 homes and installed over 1,200 smoke alarms. Of the homes visited, over 65 percent are unprotected from fire and over 19 percent are under-protected, Broscious said. The lack of adequate smoke alarms is “not bound to a socioeconomic status,” he said. He recounted an instance where he came across a house on the west side of Greenville where a husband, wife, mother-in-law and three kids lived with no working smoke alarms anywhere. A short while later he found the same situation in the Gower Estates community. Broscious said he’s been contacted by fire departments around the county about how GCFD uses data to improve fire safety. Using a tablet, firefighters can quickly pull up a map of the city with color-coded dots and see what houses they’ve visited. The app they use also aggregates data about the house and information about the residents, such as special circumstances like disabilities. “Data is everything in community risk reduction,” he said. When responding to non-lifethreatening situations, firefighters make a point of checking homes for proper protection and installing alarms. Broscious said he’s proud of the work GCFD has done so far to prevent fire fatalities, but he’s looking to do more. “I’m happy, but I’m not satisfied.”
Fire fatalities in S.C. 96
73
73
63 57
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 YEAR
(Source: Office of State Fire Marshal)