FRANKFORT, IL – The nonprofit Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition (HFSC) has received a fiscal year 2012 federal Fire Prevention and Safety Grant through the Grant Programs Directorate of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The Grant will fund HFSC’s ambitious new strategy to battle an age-old problem – lack of information about home fires and the lifesaving benefits of home fire sprinklers. HFSC will educate two large audiences identified as lacking the facts about home fire sprinklers: consumers (especially homebuyers) and the broader homebuilding community (builders, real estate agents and local building officials).
The funding extends work HFSC began in the past year by launching the “Home Fire Sprinklers: Ask for Them” campaign. HFSC will implement the 2012 grant program nationally and locally, through the U.S. fire service, particularly members of HFSC’s Built for Life Fire Department Program.
“We are grateful to have been awarded this generous Fire Prevention and Safety Grant to shine a brighter light on home fire sprinkler facts,” says HFSC Board President Lorraine Carli.
Central to HFSC’s grant-funded program is a strategy to increase understanding of the dangers of lightweight home construction to both residents and first responders.
New educational tools and materials will be promoted to homebuilders, building and other local officials, and to real estate agents to increase their understanding of home fire sprinkler technology.
“The broader homebuilding community has the ability to impact consumer interest in home fire sprinklers. It’s vital that they have the facts so they can pass good information on to the public and to their customers,” says HFSC Communications Manager Peg Paul.
As HFSC has done with past Fire Prevention and Safety Grant awards, this new funding will underwrite the creation and distribution of valuable materials designed specifically to help U.S. fire departments conduct more and better local home fire sprinkler educational outreach.
“Among the new activities this grant makes possible is a robust national consumer media program to focus on the problem of home fires and the benefits of fire sprinklers,” Paul adds.
HFSC has worked since 1996 as a nonprofit and noncommercial advocate for home fire sprinkler technology. “HFSC’s board of directors looks forward to putting this grant to good use advancing public fire safety across the U.S.,” Carli says.
Watch for information about the grant activities by visiting HFSC online at HomeFireSprinkler.org and through your favorite social media outlets: www.facebook.com/HFSCorg# on Twitter @HFSCorg on Pinterest at www.pinterest.com/hfsc/ and join HFSC’s networking group on LinkedIn.
HFSC was formed in 1996 to inform the public about the lifesaving value of sprinkler protection in one- and two-family homes. HFSC is a purely educational 501(c)(3) charitable organization and the leading resource for independent, noncommercial information about home fire sprinklers.
