Tuesday Night Pizza

[kenmcnaughton]

I don't know who started this crazy idea, but it works! I think I got the idea from a classmate at the NFA. Share the idea with your local pizza restaurant (pizza hut, etc.) It doesn't hurt to get an insurance agent or two as well as your local hardware store, Lowes, Home Depot, etc. involved too. The idea is this: On Tuesday night (or the night that works best for you), approx. 1800-1900 hours, you and the pizza place choose one of the pizza's ready for delivery and the engine company makes the delivery. Here's the catch - if they have working smoke detectors on every level of their home, the pizza is free. If they aren't working, they pay for the pizza and the engine company either replaces the batteries or installs the smoke detectors for free (this is where the hardware store and the ins. agent become handy). The pizza place owner has to buy into the concept of home fire prevention and early warning, and be willing to write off a pizza ( their cost is less than $4.00). The hardware store cuts the cost on the smoke detectors and batteries, and the ins. agency donates the remaining cost of the equipment. I serve a small eastern washington city, it was very popular here for some time. The word got around and after about a year, every pizza out the door was free. This program will last longer in larger cities.

[kghemtp]

Ken, that's almost exactly what was done in a department I rode with for paramedic couple years back. Instead of changing batteries and charging/not charging for pizza, it was just a thrill for the apparatus to show up in the neighborhoods to deliver pizza, and it was a public service checking the smoke detectors wherever they delivered. I don't know that it necessarily has to involve hardware stores (you're just being the overachiever!!), but instead just saying, "Sir/ma'am, you really need to replace this battery." I mean, who isn't going to remember pizza being delivered like that??? The conversations that spark (fire humour, I suppose!) from this could be great, too. Is this something that your department is working on again?

[kenmcnaughton]

I would like to do it again. But as I stated earlier, we are a small town. There is only 1 pizza establishment here, so I pretty much have to wait for him to want to do it again. You're right though, you shaould have seen the kids in the neighborhoods and cul de sacs go berserk when the engine arrived. Summer was the best, more kids and adults outside at that time of day.

[williamdelaney]

This is a very good program and wish I had thought of it. It was initiated by Chief Dan Gaument (Watertown, NY FD) - a recent classmate of mine at the NFA. Very good pub ed/outteach kind of chief. I believe there was a recent article about this in Fire Chief or the IAFC magazine.