Excerpts from MySuburbanLife.com:
A group of McHenry Township Fire Protection District employees went shopping Thursday morning for an item that some of its most high-risk callers don’t have – smoke alarms.
Seniors are some of the most frequent callers to the department, and the reason why it’s implementing the Remembering When Program starting in September. The four-day program will bring in presenters to educate seniors and their caregivers on ways to prevent falls and fires.
“We’re just trying to help them stay safe and not visit the ER,” said Rebecca Rosner, McHenry Township Fire Protection District public education coordinator. “That’s the No. 1 reason they go to the ER, is falls.”
People 60 and older made up about 45 percent of the department’s EMS calls in 2015, Rosner said.
“The No. 1 goal there, obviously, is to make sure that our seniors are safe,” McHenry Township Fire Protection District Chief Tony Huemann said. “The secondary part of the byproduct of that is it reduces our call volume and allows us to answer other calls.”
Huemann said sometimes when the department responds to a senior’s home, a smoke alarm may be beeping because it’s out of battery, but the senior does not hear it.
Part of the program will include house visits to seniors, where firefighters will meet with seniors to make sure their alarms are working and help make a fire exit plan.
If alarms need to be replaced, the fire department will use the 75 smoke alarms they picked up Thursday through a $500 donation from Meijer in McHenry.
“We’re recognizing the fact that we need take care of the at-risk people in our community,” Huemann said.
The sessions will be from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Sept. 10 and 24 and Oct. 1 and 8 at the McHenry Recreation Center, 3636 Municipal Drive, McHenry.
For information or to RSVP, contact Rosner at 815-669-5379 or rosnerrebecca@fire.mtfpd.org.
