Yamhill County Fire Investigation Team to Bolster Fire Investigation Efforts with FM Global Grant

Sept. 2, 2009

(McMinnville, Oregon) - The Yamhill County Fire Investigation Team received a $2000 fire prevention grant recently from FM Global, a leading property insurer of the world's largest businesses based in Johnston, R.I.

FM Global representatives presented the award to Yamhill County Fire Investigation Team President Lori Labb at the McMinnville Fire Department at 175 NE First Street in McMinnville. The award will be used to assist with fire investigations to help fire investigators more efficiently investigate and determine the cause of a fire.

The Yamhill County Fire Investigation Team (YCFIT) is made up of representatives from 10 fire and 2 law enforcement agencies in Yamhill County, 3 of which are full-time paid, 2 are combination and 7 are volunteer agencies. This grant is very important to the team because the individual budgets of most of these agencies are small and do not afford them the luxury of staffing full-time fire investigators. The training budgets are also tight, limiting the amount of training they can afford. The YCFIT does not have a direct funding mechanism for the team, rather the individual members rely on their represented agencies to provide the necessary equipment and training to participate as a team member.

Because fire continues to be the leading cause of commercial and industrial property damage worldwide, FM Global has contributed millions of dollars to fire services and related agencies around the globe working to prevent fire for more than three decades. Locally, the company has awarded grants to a number of Oregon-based organizations.

"At FM Global, we believe the majority of property damage is preventable—not inevitable—and we are pleased to make funding available to organizations, like the Yamhill County Fire Investigation Team, that share the same philosophy," said Michael Spaziani, manager of FM Global's Fire Prevention Grant Program. "After all, it's much better to prevent a disaster than to recover from one."

FM Global's highly competitive Fire Prevention Grant Program awards grants quarterly to fire departments—as well as national, state, regional, local and community organizations worldwide—that best demonstrate a need for funding, where dollars can have the greatest impact on preventing, preparing for and controlling fire in the community.

More than one out of every three FORTUNE 1000 companies and similar-sized organizations operating in more than 130 countries works with FM Global to develop robust property insurance and engineering solutions to protect their business operations from fire, natural disasters and other types of property risk. Established nearly 175 years ago, FM Global ranks #583 among FORTUNE Magazine's largest companies in America. The company  was recently names "Best Property Insurer in the World" by Euromoney magazine and also is rated A+ (Superior) by A.M. Best and AA (Very Strong) by Fitch Ratings.

Contact Info:
Eric McMullen
(503) 435-5804
[email protected]

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