MIDDLEBOROUGH – Chief Lance Benjamino is pleased to announce that the Middleborough Fire Department has been awarded $5,281 for the Fiscal Year 2021 Student Awareness of Fire Education (S.A.F.E.) Program and $2,680 for the Senior SAFE Program by the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services.
The Middleborough Fire Department will use the grant money to continue the department’s fire education and prevention program in the schools as well as within the senior community.
“We are pleased to have received these funds from the state to continue to grow our fire safety and education programs for seniors and students in our community,” Chief Benjamino said. “Our department’s partnerships with the Middleborough Public Schools and town’s Council on Aging have made these programs extremely successful in the past years, and with this grant we look to further enhance the programs we have to offer.”
Funding for the programs allows for specially trained fire educators to work with classroom teachers and seniors to deliver age-appropriate lessons on fire and life safety. The key fire and life safety behaviors in the school-based program meet both the requirements of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Health Curriculum Frameworks and the state Department of Fire Services Curriculum Planning Guidebook.
The average number of children who die in fires each year in Massachusetts has dropped 78% since the program started compared to a similar time frame before it started, according to the state’s Department of Fire Services, which administers the two programs.
The S.A.F.E. and Senior SAFE Programs provide $1.9 million through the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security to local fire departments. The programs are administered by the state’s Department of Fire Services.
To learn more about the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services’ SAFE program, click here.
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