CANTON – Wayne Dube wants every home in town to have at least one smoke detector.
An $11,453 grant the Fire and Rescue Department received may very well make that plan a reality.
Dube, the town’s fire chief, learned last week that his department received the federal grant under the Fire Prevention and Safety Program. That money will be used to buy 300 10-year smoke detectors, enough for virtually all of the 323 households in town. These detectors have a 10-year battery and a hush mode so owners can quiet the alarm if it should go off during routine cooking.
The grant will also be used to buy 20 hard-wired smoke detectors for installation in Whitney Brook apartments, a complex that houses elderly and disabled people. These units will be installed in each apartment, will have a battery backup and a strobe light for those who are hearing impaired.
Installing will begin in the next few months: senior citizens and families with children first, then the remaining households.
In addition to the smoke detectors, some of the grant money will be used for fire prevention handouts, which will be distributed by Fire Department members as they install the smoke detectors, and six fire prevention videos. Dube said the videos will be shown in the local school and perhaps on the local public access channel.
He said Fire Department members will go door-to-door with the smoke detector offer. Acceptance of the units is optional he said, although he will try to convince homeowners of its importance.
The grant is part of $10 million distributed nationwide in an effort to save lives through fire prevention and safety.
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