Bluefield, W.Va. (WOAY) – At today’s Bluefield, West Virginia board meeting, a local agent from State Farm presented the city’s Fire Department with the Fire Prevention and Safety grant.
This is the third year in a row that the the city has been awarded a grant worth over $6,000 dollars. The department plans to use the money to purchase smoke and carbon monoxide detectors for the community.
“I just can’t tell you the importance of having a working fire smoke detector in your house or a carbon monoxide detector in your house. These things will save your lives,” Bluefield Fire Chief Rick Cary said. “While you’re sleeping at night, these go off. It helps to defeat that silent killer that the smoke with a byproduct from fire puts off. You might not hear the fire downstairs in your house or in your basement or wherever it might be at, but that smoke when it’s coming up will set the smoke detectors off, and that’s what’s going to give you your first warning to get out of the house.”
Chief Cary also said anyone in the area can contact the fire department to have detectors installed in their homes. However, the grant money will not just go toward the detectors but will be used to buy a new Sparky the Fire Dog suit for the department’s outreach program as well.