Businesses to give keys to Fire Department in case of emergency

03/01/2005

By: John Rook , Staff Writer

BRANFORD - The Town of Branford has sent a message to all businesses in town; they want your keys and they want them now.
Well, at least within the next three years.
The Representative Town Meeting this month passed a new ordinance requiring all area businesses to hand over a set of their keys to officials from the Fire Department to ensure that their personnel have immediate access to the building in case of an emergency.
Each set of keys will be stored away in a lock box, only accessible by a secret access code and only to be used in an emergency.
"This might not be needed right now, but it will be in the future," said Fire Chief Jack Ahern. "When we are responsible for a larger area, this is going to be invaluable."
According to Ahern, the main purpose of the lock boxes will be to limit the amount of damage emergency personnel need to inflict upon a structure when a crisis emerges. Currently, when a fire breaks out in a building, emergency personnel simply break their way into the facility to deal with the problem.
With a set of keys readily available in a secure lock box, firefighters, medical personnel, and other emergency staff will have access to the facility without causing any damage.
"You can imagine the damage to the Town Hall if we had to take those doors down," said Ahern. "It would be in the thousands, as opposed to the small amount it costs for the lock boxes."
That cost will be approximately $200 per business, Ahern said, with each business having the option to acquire more complex lock boxes that provide more security. For more money, businesses could acquire lock boxes that, if tampered with, could set off an alarm informing authorities that an unauthorized individual is trying to open it.
That type of protection might be encouraging to certain business owners, but Ahern assured the RTM that the standard box was more than sufficient.
"It is not as if someone could come walking by and open the box. It has to be opened with a special code," said Ahern.
That code, and access to the lock box, was of significant to many RTM members, who were concerned that several individuals could have access to the keys.
"We were involved in a situation with a lock box at the (Fire) headquarters and it was a disaster," said Republican RTM member Kurt Schwanfelder. "There was no security at all. I know, as a business owner, that there is going to be a lot of concern that we now have these boxes out there saying 'hey, come open us up'."
But Ahern assured members that access to the lock boxes would be limited to himself, Deputy Fire Chief Ron Mullan, and medical personnel teams. Also, emergency dispatchers will be able to access the lock boxes in the case of an emergency call.
RTM member Raymond Dunbar also reminded his colleagues that the lock boxes will not have any effect on businesses' personal security systems.
"Your systems will still be intact, and that is important for people to know," said Dunbar. "This is just for accessing the building."
Businesses will have until 2008 to turn over a set of keys to town officials or will be subject to fines.