Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Opening The Doors To Fire Safety

This cold winter has brought with it lots of work. I am very excited to tell you about one of the projects I am currently working on in my community. The fire department, here in Nisporeni, reached out to me earlier this winter asking for help with a project they have been trying to complete for many years.

The fire house in Nisporeni was built during the Soviet Union, over two decades ago, since then the house has been maintained by the department. Though the fire house has been well maintained it has also seen the wear and tear of two decades of harsh weather conditions. These weather conditions paired with old equipment has made it challenging to operate at a consistent level of operations. The fire house garage doors are made of large slabs of wood. With more than twenty years of wear, the doors no longer create a tight seal. In the winter months this has resulted in the doors freezing shut. This happening in an emergency situation has led to critical time lost.

The department came to me for help with a two-part project that will both change-out the old doors with new garage doors that will meet fire codes, and a safety seminar program that will teach fire safety to the youth at the five local schools. This was a project I knew would hugely benefit the community that I now call home.

So, I got to work and wrote a project proposal through the Peace Corps Partnership Program (PCPP). This is a program that allows any current Peace Corps volunteer (PCV) to write a project and receive funding through donations from friends and family back in the US. After the tragic passing of a local hero, the fire chief from my hometown in New Hampshire, I knew that this was the way I wanted to honor him and reach-out to friends and family for support. The project is currently in the fundraising phase.

The project is posted in the Peace Corps website and was found by an American working in Chisinau. He has helped volunteers in the past with this sort of project and has generously offered to host a benefit evening this Saturday in Chisinau. I am excited to present the project to the attendees and hopefully raise some money for my community.

If you would be interested in helping me with this project please copy and paste the link below into the URL bar. This will bring you to the project page. (There will be a column on the right where donations can be made.) Feel free to read the project summary. Also, if anyone has questions about the project or how to donate leave a comment here and I will respond as quickly as I can.

https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=13-261-002

Thank you in advance for your support!

Peace

1 comment:

  1. If a door is held open, (wedges) for the convenience of employees, it creates a significant fire hazard for all occupants because of the break in the fire barrier. OSHA regulations require that fire doors not be blocked open. Doors that are designated to be fire exit doors can only be held open by electromagnetic release devices because they are the only hold-open devices which will close quickly enough to prevent the passage of the toxic gases and smoke. The building must be equipped with a smoke alarm system to trigger the door release. Sprinkler activation must also release the doors.

    ----------------------------------
    passive fire products

    ReplyDelete