Woodbury Residents Help Firefighters with the Click of a Mouse

Picture this: Fire trucks with lights shining and sirens blaring pull into someone's driveway at night. Yikes.

Or not.

The Woodbury Volunteer Fire Department hopes to reinstate its pizza and smoke detector delivery program, with the help of residents and Liberty Mutual.

Liberty Mutual is offering 10 $10,000 awards to fire departments where community members demonstrate their commitment to fire safety.

The pledge program is now open through Monday, Oct. 31, and all residents have to do to help their local fire department is take a quiz.

"Start by learning about the potential fire hazards around your home and what you can do to reduce your risks," said Fire Chief Janet Morgan on the WVFD website. "Then take the quiz, credit your fire department and spread the word to your family, friends and neighbors."

Chief Morgan asks that residents spread the word verbally and via the WVFD's Twitter account.

Residents can check the leaderboard throughout the program to see how the community is doing.

Woodbury's Ranking

The WVFD is presently ranked at 26 among the small fire departments, with 41 credits.

The Merrimac Fire Department in Merrimac, Mass., is in the number one spot, with 539 credits.

Pizza and Smoke Detectors

"What we would really love to use the grant money for is to reinstate our pizza delivery program," said Chief Morgan.

One night a week, the WVFD members picked up five pizzas and chose addresses from a list of residents who signed up for the program.

"If they had working smoke detectors, they would get the pizza for dinner -- if not, the firefighters ate pizza at the firehouse that night," Chief Morgan said with a laugh.

The grant will fund not only the pizzas, but also smoke detectors that are given to the residents who do not have them. Chief Morgan said if the resident is unable to install the smoke detectors themselves, the firefighters will do the installing.

"It's funny, we had one lady who was 94-years old and her family could not get her to put in smoke detectors," said Chief Morgan. "So her family signed her up for the program and she was so cute, she said, 'of course you can put in smoke detectors'."

Chief Morgan said a fire department in Spokane, Wa. instituted the program and that was how the WVFD got the idea. That was about eight or nine years ago and the program had approximately 200 sign-ups, she said.

"With the budget cuts we have had to make we had to stop our pizza delivery program for working smoke detectors," said Chief Morgan on the WVFD website. "These funds would help get us back out there, making sure everyone has working smoke detectors."

Liberty Mutual sees this as a way of giving back to the emergency personnel who conduct a service to communities.

"At Liberty Mutual, we're proud to partner with local fire departments and firefighters every day to help families live safer, more secure lives," according to the Liberty Mutual website. "We believe the more you know about home fire hazards and the steps you can take to prevent home fires, the safer both your family and your community will be. The Fire Safety Pledge program is your chance to give back to the brave men and women of your local fire department who tirelessly work to protect your community."