DCA Division of Fire Safety Receives Grant to Bolster Fire Prevention Efforts

Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Richard E. Constable, III on behalf of the Division of Fire Safety accepted a $5,000 fire prevention grant from FM Global, one of the world’s largest commercial property insurers.

The Division of Fire Safety will use the award to help fund the annual Fire Information and Rescue Education [F.I.R.E] Bowl, a fire safety competition for middle school students across the state.

“The F.I.R.E. Bowl is about teaching fire safety education in a way that grabs the attention – and the competitive spirit – of seventh and eighth grade students,” said Commissioner Constable. “Through their participation, middle school students become familiar with fire science and can pass along their knowledge to their peers and loved ones.”

The Division of Fire Safety launched the F.I.R.E. Bowl educational program in 2006 as a unique way to get students interested in fire safety and prevention. The competition challenge occurs first at participating middle schools and then culminates in an annual event held at Kean University in Union Township.

“It is exciting to see how hard these young folks work on the competition. They become quite conversant in the very principals of fire science that we ask the men and women of the New Jersey Fire Service to know in order to obtain their state firefighter certifications,” said Acting State Fire Marshal and Division of Fire Safety Director William E. Kramer, Jr. “If the student contestants learn one new thing about keeping themselves, their families and their friends safe from fire, then we all win.”

Through its Fire Prevention Grant Program, FM Global awards grants quarterly to fire departments, as well as national, state, regional, local and community organizations that best demonstrate a need for funding. Applicants must also show the impact the grant funding would have on preventing fire, which continues to be the leading cause of property damage worldwide.


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