JOHN BURGESON jburgeson@ctpost.com
03/19/2008 12:56:56 AM EDT
BRIDGEPORT — More than 14,000 free smoke detectors have been installed in city homes since 2005, but to Fire Chief Brian Rooney, that's not enough.
So Rooney, along with a number of other city officials, on Tuesday unveiled a new ad campaign and logo aimed at getting more people to take advantage of the smoke alarm program.
"You won't be able to go anywhere in the city without seeing this new Safe Home logo," the chief said. The Safe Home program, he said, is a partnership between the Fire Department, the Mid-Fairfield County chapter of the American Red Cross, AmeriCorps and RYASAP, an agency that focuses on community and substance-abuse issues.
The new logo features an upward-gazing Dalmatian and a smoke detector, with the slogan: "Can you SPOT your Smoke Alarm? If not, call for a FREE one. BRIDGEPORT — 335-8835."
Rooney said that the logo will appear on virtually all city fire vehicles, as well as on many public transit buses.
The free smoke detectors, which are installed by AmeriCorps workers, are tamper-resistant and come with a lithium battery that lasts for a decade.
Steve Pereira, who supervises the Safe Home program for RYASAP, said that the detectors have saved lives in the city. "Of the 250 house fires in Bridgeport in the last year, 36 had smoke detectors that were installed by us," he said.
Although he is the city's fire chief, Rooney also has a flair for marketing as shown by the greater success at getting smoke detectors installed
in Bridgeport homes than by similar programs in other cities.
"I don't mean to toot my own horn, but Bridgeport has the best program, far and a way," he said.
He said that this was the result of experimentation with several different forms of advertising.
"We tried billboards, newspapers, radio, we sent letters to everyone in the city. But you know what worked the best? These door hangers," he said.
He held up one of the paper door hangers that firefighters leave on doorknobs at homes around the city. "When we ask people where they heard about the program, virtually 99 percent of them say it was the door hanger that made them make the call," Rooney said. The door hangers, which also feature the Dalmatian logo, are printed in English and Spanish.
"People say, 'Gee, if it's important enough for someone to come by and leave a door hanger, it must be important,' " the chief said.
City officials said that the Safe Home program is being funded by a $140,000 from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As part of the effort, Kurt Bassett, the executive director of the Red Cross chapter, said that his agency is distributing hundreds of "Masters of Disaster" kits to elementary school classrooms in the city.
"We go into both public and parochial schools," he said.
Mayor Bill Finch said that a working smoke detector "is worth its weight in gold."
"Last year, we had many, many examples in which people made it out of their homes safe and sound thanks to working smoke detectors. You can't beat that," he said.