The Darlington County Fire District on Tuesday received a $2,032 grant from one of the leading property insurers for some of the world’s largest businesses to help with its fire prevention efforts.
Specifically, the grant will go to purchase a laptop computer and software to assist fire district officials in preparing and organizing pre-incident plans, said Darlington County Fire District Chief David Williamson.
Those plans, William-son said, include information on electrical wiring, gas cutoffs and other key factors that firefighters need to know about in battling blazes, particularly in industrial fires, and in fire safety inspections.
The pre-incident plans also offer a valuable tool in search and rescue efforts, Williamson added.
“This is going to be an extremely useful tool,” Williamson said. “This is going to help the county tremendously.”
Having the plans stored and organized in a computerized system will mean faster and easier access to them in the event of an emergency, Williamson said. “This is something that will help us save lives and property.”
Coleman Cashion, senior engineering specialist for FM Global, the company which provided the grant funding, said fire remains the number one cause of commercial and industrial property damage worldwide.
“Our interest is in saving lives and property,” Cashion said. “We think this is a good investment.”
Based in Johnston, R.I., FM Global has contributed millions of dollars to fire services and related agencies around the world working to prevent fire for more than three decades, Cashion said. The company has awarded grants to a number of South Carolina-based organizations in that effort, he said.
“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 Darlington County Fire District that share that 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.
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