Staff report
The Rockingham Fire Department has once again been awarded the Life Safety Achievement, this time for 2013. The award is presented by the National Association of State Fire Marshals Fire Research and Education Foundation and Grinnell Mutual Insurance Company.
Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com
The 2013 Life Safety Achievement Award, received this week, is already on display at the Rockingham Fire Department on Lawrence Street.
The award was announced by way of an Aug. 15 letter from Butch Browning, foundation president. The letter arrived earlier this week in former Chief Charles Gardner’s last week on the job. Gardner retired after starting his firefighting career with the city of Rockingham in 1983.
Since 1994, the Life Safety Achievement Award has recognized fire departments for recording outstanding fire safety statistics and implementing effective prevention programs during the preceding calendar year. The award recognizes a department’s proactive efforts to improve its community’s fire and life safety behaviors.
Since its inception, the Life Safety Achievement Award has been granted to fire departments across the country that achieve zero fire deaths in the previous calendar year. Because zero fire deaths may not fully reflect a fire department’s prevention efforts and may be beyond a department’s control, the criteria was revised to include those that record a 10 percent reduction in fire fatalities as well as document an active and effective fire prevention program.
Along with the letter, Browning included a certificate suitable for framing, which new Chief Harold Isler already had on display by Thursday afternoon.
The award is announced less than two months before Fire Prevention Week, Oct. 5 through Oct. 11. Rockingham Fire Department’s annual Fire Preventi
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