Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) has teamed up with the Rural Fire Service (RFS) to visit a large retirement village in Bargo, south of Sydney, and deliver key summer safety messages for their most vulnerable, leading into Christmas.
Over 50 firefighters from each agency gathered over the weekend at the Waratah Highlands Retirement Village as part of a joint agency initiative. The idea for the engagement was hatched when local MP for Wollondilly, Judy Hannan, received feedback from local residents saying they were unsure whether they had a working smoke alarm or not.
Summer fire safety points
Each of the residents was spoken to about key summer fire safety points
Ms Hanna then contacted Fire and Rescue NSW to conduct a visit to the retirement village, which has 150 houses on site and more than 250 residents.
Firefighters gathered at the complex on a Saturday morning to receive briefings from Zone Commander, Greg Wright (FRNSW), James Morris (RFS), and Ms Hanna. Firefighters, from both agencies, were then split into teams to provide fire safety advice at each home.
Each of the residents was spoken to about key summer fire safety points, had their home escape plan reviewed, and had their smoke alarms checked. They also installed new batteries into alarms that weren't working.
Fire escape plan
Superintendent Wright says the importance of visiting such a vulnerable group leading into Christmas can't be measured.
Superintendent Wright said, "An initiative such as this is really important because the elderly are an extremely vulnerable group, especially at this time of year. All credit to Judy Hannan, MP, who sent out a newsletter to all of her residents and got feedback that they were unsure about whether their smoke alarm was working and if they had a fire escape plan."
Visiting residents
"From there, we decided to get together with the RFS to spend the time visiting residents at the retirement village and actually spend time within their homes checking that all was safe," continued Superintendent Wright.
He adds, "We were able to visit over 150 homes within one morning, and from the friendly response we received from residents, it was an extremely worthwhile exercise and something that we will look to repeat again."
