Pioneering Tech

Pioneering Tech Partners with the Gwinnett County Fire & Emergency Services

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Gwinnett County, GA

Partners: Gwinnett County Fire & Emergency Services (GCFES), Gwinnett Christian Terrace, Gwinnett County Senior Services and Friends of Gwinnett Seniors

Campaign: “SeniorBSafe” Community Risk Reduction initiative – a fire and injury prevention program focused on older adults

Cooking fires are the predominant cause of fire in Gwinnett County, representing more than 52% of all structure fires in one- or two-family dwellings and 48% in other residential occupancies. A fire analysis covering seven years showed that the six-story Gwinnett Christian Terrace was experiencing between two to four reported cooking fires per year. The 125-unit complex houses older adults.

To protect this high-risk population, GCFES partnered with Friends of Gwinnett Seniors to conduct a pilot project in 2015 to install SmartBurners in all 125 apartments. A review five years after SmartBurner was installed found there had been no reported stovetop cooking fires at Gwinnett Christian Terrace.

The cost of the project was $25,000 with Friends of Gwinnett Seniors splitting the cost with Gwinnett Christian Terrace. The fire department put the two parties together and brokered the deal after conducting a formal risk assessment, proof that data from a formal risk assessment can help support these types of partnerships.  A few years after SmartBurner was installed, Friends of Gwinnett Seniors stated that this was the best and most measurable project for creating goodwill that they have ever done.

The success of this project paved the way for the retrofit of SmartBurners in hundreds of additional high-risk seniors’ homes in the County. SmartBurner installation now plays an integral role in the GCFES multi-hazard SeniorBSafe CRR initiative.

You can incorporate this life-saving technology into your CRR program too. SmartBurner easily replaces electric coil burners and helps prevent cooking fires. The prevention solution provides a return on investment through insurance savings, energy savings, and maintenance savings as well as preventing the high costs of restoration and lost-rent when fire occurs.

Worcester Housing Success Story

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Worcester, MA

Partners: Worcester Fire Department and Worcester Housing Authority (WHA)

Campaign: “A Recipe for Fire Safe Cooking” program  – implemented with FY 2015 and 2016 Federal Emergency Management Agency Fire Prevention & Safety Grant funding

The Worcester Fire Department’s CRR fire analysis identified four WHA high-rise buildings that were responsible for nearly 25 percent of all of Worcester’s reported cooking fires in 2015. These buildings accounted for an average of nearly 12 fires per month, causing more than $500,000 in property damage. The apartments housed low- to no-income older adults, most of whom had physical or mental disabilities that increased their fire risk.

The program combined education and training of property managers and residents with the installation of SmartBurners™ in the WHA apartments. There have been zero fires where SmartBurner was in place. Remarkably, there were two fires in units where the SmartBurner was removed by the tenant. That, in turn, has promted the WHA to implement Standard Operating Guidelines to help ensure that the SmartBurner is never again removed by tenants.

After the first phase of installations, there was a documented 96% reduction in cooking-related fire department calls. As well, following a stovetop fire in a different WHA complex that destroyed two WHA apartments and displaced four residents, a grant amendment allowed the fire department to retrofit an additional 60 units.

The Worcester Fire Department was recently awarded a fourth FEMA grant that will complete the installation of SmartBurner in additional WHA properties equipped with electric coil stove tops.

You can incorporate this life-saving technology into your CRR program too. SmartBurner easily replaces electric coil burners and helps prevent cooking fires. The prevention solution provides a return on investment through insurance savings, energy savings, and maintenance savings as well as preventing the high costs of restoration and lost-rent when fire occurs

 

Erie Metropolitan Housing Success Story

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How Installing Pioneering’s Cooking Fire Solution Helped Save Property, Lives, and Money. 

Stovetop cooking is the leading cause of household fire throughout North America. In 2011 U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated 156,300 home fires involving cooking equipment. These fires caused 470 deaths, 5,390 injuries, and $1.0 billion in direct property damage. According to Facts and Figures from NFPA’s Cooking Fires 2010, cooking caused 44% of reported home fires in the U.S., 16% of home fire deaths, 40% of home fire injuries, and 15% of the direct property damage in 2010. In fact, 68% of all home cooking fires involve an electric cooking range.  Cooking left unattended is the number one reason for these fires. 

Shockingly, statistics reveal that 43.4% of all stovetop fires occur in multi-unit residences and that 63.2% of stovetop fires are in subsidized units. Fire Marshalls rightly recommend public education and use of stovetop-fire-mitigation technologies in high-risk populations such as multi-family buildings, particularly affordable housing units.

The Problem   

Erie Metropolitan Housing Authority (EMHA) serves Sandusky, Ohio citizens by operating multiple public-housing properties, providing and maintaining safe, affordable housing. Sandusky’s EMHA also administers rent-supplement programs assisting Sandusky families in renting over 1,000 private housing units. Overall, the agency currently provides or arranges safe and affordable housing for thousands of residents.

EMHA sought to increase resident comfort, reduce fires, reduce utility expenses, and promote sustainability. In 2012 Sandusky Fire Department Inspector Steve Rucker secured a Red Cross grant to fund smoke detectors for Sandusky’s low-income residents and seniors. While deploying grant funds Sandusky Fire responded to an unattended cooking fire at EMHA’s “Community Plaza” (a senior residence), which focused Rucker’s attention on stove-top related fires, particularly in low-income and senior housing. Rucker quickly concluded that Sandusky, like every other U.S. community, suffers from a rising number of cooking fires often because of unattended cooking.

Read the entire article here

A CRR Success Trilogy: Partnering in Cooking Fire Prevention

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Cooking is the leading cause of household fire and fire injuries in the United States. There are many champions across the U.S. who advocate cooking fire prevention as an essential component of their local fire prevention initiatives. Among them are the following three who, through their hard work and effort, have clearly demonstrated the value of building strong and vibrant partnerships and how cooking fire prevention technology can significantly improve Community Risk Reduction (CRR) outcomes.

 

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Where there is smoke, there’s…An opportunity to save significant money on false alarm activations.

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It’s snack time on campus somewhere! And somewhere across America in a campus residence, a student has just popped open their microwave oven to feed a craving. They have also just rolled the dice again on having an on campus false alarm activation or worse, a cooking fire. According to the National Protection Fire Association (NFPA) microwave ovens are, on average, involved in more than 7,000 home structure fires every year, that’s more than 19 fires every day. Perhaps surprisingly, microwaves are also responsible for more emergency room injury visits than any other cooking device. More surprising however, is the magnitude of nuisance alarms from microwave ovens.

Make no mistake: Nuisance alarms are expensive.

False alarms, or nuisance alarms as they are referred to in the fire service, are a massively expensive problem for many facilities – especially our nation’s colleges and universities. Apart from wasting thousands of dollars, nuisance alarms can also create very unfortunate behaviour risks. When people hear a false alarm too often, and consistently find there is no actual fire risk, they become conditioned to down-play future alarms or worse ignore them altogether. As a result, the one time a fire alarm is real, residents may fail to act or act fast enough to avoid serious injury.
With that in mind, the Athens Ohio Fire Department (AFD) partnered with Ohio University’s Environmental Health and Safety Department (EHS) to study the number of nuisance alarms on campus and what was causing them. Here’s what they found: The fire department was responding to more than 100 on-campus nuisance alarms annually; and most of them were caused by burnt or overcooked food in microwave ovens! Since each nuisance run made by the AFD resulted in a direct cost of more than $2,000, Ohio University found they were spending more than $200,000 every year on false alarm activations from microwave ovens. That is literally like watching hundreds of thousands of
dollars go up in smoke each and every year!

Yes, Safe-T-Sensor makes cents!
What was the University’s chosen solution? Safe-T-sensor. A cooking fire safety product from Pioneering Technology designed to help prevent microwave fires and false alarm activations. Safe-T-sensor attaches to the outside of a microwave and at the first sign of smoke from inside the microwave, it shuts the appliance off before a fire can occur or the fire alarm is triggered.
Over the school’s winter break, Ohio University installed more than 3,500 Safe-T-sensors. In the following 14 weeks, the school saw a 92 percent drop in the number of false alarm activations from microwave ovens versus the corresponding 14-week period from the year before. By combining their SafeT-sensor roll out with targeted cooking fire safety presentations and materials, Ohio University was able to dramatically save money through fewer nuisance alarms. They were also able to create significant awareness for on-campus fire safety generally. That initial installation was followed up with the installation of another 1,000 sensors. In total, Ohio University purchased 4,630 Safe-T-sensors. An investment that literally paid for itself in a very short period of time. As Brent Auker, a Fire Protection Engineer at the University explained it: “The investment in these sensors has reduced fire runs, response hazards, late-night residence evacuations, interruption in study time and the cost of fire equipment operation, campus police and personnel required to investigate.”

A Word to the Wise
At Pioneering Technology, we are all too familiar with stories like the one from Ohio University.
Whether the cooking fire happens on a school campus, in a public housing complex, a senior’s residence or even an extended stay hotel, the effects of a cooking fire are astonishingly fast and devastatingly destructive. In the best circumstances, it’s the only property that is damaged. Sadly, too many cooking fires across North America also cause serious injuries, sometimes even fatalities.
We proudly manufacture and distribute products that help protect lives and property by tackling the serious problem of cooking fires. Our technology also saves energy and money. Our products are not just the smart choice, they are the right choice and the right thing to do.
Together, we can help save lives, property and money from the ever-present risk of cooking fires!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Microwave ovens cause fires and false alarm activations. Often.
  • A joint study between Ohio University and the Athens Ohio Fire Department estimates the direct cost of a single nuisance alarm was $2,000.
  • It was also estimated that microwave oven false alarms cost the school about $200,000 annually.
  • After 14 weeks, Ohio University found that Safe-T-sensor delivered a 92 percent drop in nuisance alarm activations from their campus microwave ovens.

 

Read the entire article here.

Forewarned is forearmed. Lessons from a campus dorm cooking fire.

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Located in Potsdam, New York, Clarkson University has, according to their website, been “bridging discovery, and engineering innovation with enterprise since 1986.” So, after experiencing a cooking fire in one of their on-campus apartments, it’s not surprising that Clarkson University choose SmartBurner.