Philadelphia and community work together to save lives
Through its “Operation Save A Child” program, the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is striving to reduce residential fire fatalities by increasing the number of occupancies with working smoke detectors. Combining their efforts in this initiative are the Philadelphia Fire Department; Home Depot, which donated 800 detectors; WCAU-TV, the program`s “cheerleader,” which airs public service announcements and fire safety programming; and the Prudential Insurance Company of America`s Eastern Operations Community Relations office in Ft. Washington, which prepared and donated 30,000 brochures.
Under the initiative, which is an adjunct to the fire department`s school fire prevention program, parents/guardians fill out and send to the local fire department a card requesting a smoke detector. The card is part of a brochure distributed to students in grades K-8. The requests then are filled by the firefighters (about 1,800 are involved in the program), who “try to work around each family`s schedule to install the smoke detectors,” explains Captain Henry Dolberry.
