Contractor, manufacturers contribute to fire safety trailers

LAKE JACKSON, Texas--A $65,000 grant and donated supplies and labor from several fire protection contractors will enable this town to build two 16-foot traveling fire safety trailers. One will be a fire safety house with a sprinkler head, hardwired smoke detectors and audible smoke alarms that will be used to demonstrate home fire safety; the other will be a fire sprinkler trailer, also set up like a home, that will use live fires to demonstrate how sprinklers work. The fire safety house will be used to educate the general public, like "school children, and it's ADA compliant, so we'll take it to nursing homes as well," said Randy Crim, Lake Jackson Fire Marshal. Crim plans to set up the trailers at public events, such as the Fourth of July and the local Festival of Lights. "We will set up meetings with homebuilders in the area to get them to buy into the concept. We'll explain what we're trying to do and [how trade-offs], where you add the sprinklers and take away something else, can offset the cost quite a bit," said Crim. Bob Trotter, regional administrator for the National Fire Sprinkler Association, said there are a handful of other sprinkler trailers around the country. Fire industry companies that have pledged to contribute materials and labor to the trailers, include Western States Fire Protection of Houston and Cherokee Piping of Houston. Mark Tate of North Star Fire Protection of Texas, in Lewisville, will install all of the fire protection systems in the trailers. Missouri manufacturer, Advanced Fire Technology, donated the 13D NFPA packaged fire sprinkler system (a mini-sprinkler systems designed for demonstration project) for the trailer. The grant is one of 74 Assistance to Firefighters Grants recently awarded by the Department of Homeland Security.