Barnstable Fire Departments Get 12.7K In State Safety Grants

BARNSTABLE, MA — Three fire departments in Barnstable Fire Department received more than $12,700 in grants from the Baker-Polito Administration to support fire education programs for children and older adults.

The departments are three of 234 municipal fire departments that will receive a total of $1.8 million in grant funding for fire education programs.

For the Barnstable Fire Department, $1,439 of the grant will be used for Student Awareness of Fire Education programs and $1,209 will be used for Senior SAFE programs.

The Hyannis department received $2,531 for student education and $1,671 for seniors. And the Centerville-Osterville department got $3,727 for students and $2,177 for seniors.

"The Department of Fire Services' S.A.F.E. grant program continues to make effective fire safety education available to hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts kids," said Governor Charlie Baker in a statement. "Thanks in part to these grants, Massachusetts has raised a generation of fire-safe families and we are glad to continue those efforts with today's awards.”

The average number of children dying in fires annually has dropped by 78 percent since the S.A.F.E. Program began – a decline almost 30 percent greater than the decline in fire deaths overall, according to the state. In light of that success, the Department of Fire Services launched the Senior SAFE Program to provide firefighters with funding to deliver fire safety education to older adults, who face a disproportionate risk of dying in a fire.

"The fire departments delivering these safety messages are reducing the risk of fire, injury, and tragedy in cities and towns across the Commonwealth," said State Fire Marshal Peter J. Ostroskey in a statement. "No child has died in a Massachusetts fire since March of 2019, and fire deaths overall continue to trend downward. Programs like S.A.F.E. and Senior SAFE are among the reasons Massachusetts is one of the most fire-safe states in the nation.”

The S.A.F.E. and Senior SAFE programs are funded through legislative earmarks to the Executive Office of the Public Safety & Security administered by the Department of Fire Services. To view a full list of department awards, click here.