• DRYER VENT WIZARD awarded $500 grants to fire departments in New Lenox, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; and Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. Dryer Vent Wizard, which specializes in dryer vent repair, replacement, cleaning, and maintenance of dryers for residential and commercial use, invited the company’s franchisees to nominate fire departments that conduct outstanding fire prevention education programs in their communities. Dryer Vent Wizard is a member of the National Fire Protection Association. Its franchisees service more than 9,000 communities of all sizes throughout the U.S. and Canada and help raise public awareness about the importance of dryer vent cleaning to prevent dryer fires and save energy. www.DryerVentWizard.com. (866) 498-SAFE.
• Advanced recently installed its MxPro4 fire system to protect Hagia Sofia, a global landmark and one of Turkey’s most visited tourist attractions. The new system supports optical smoke and air sampling detection and a range of input and output devices. MxPro offers a choice of two panel ranges, four detector protocols, and a completely open installer network that enjoys free complete training and support. Advanced is a world leader in the development and manufacture of intelligent fire systems. Their products include complete fire detection systems, multiprotocol fire panels, extinguishing control, and fire paging systems. www.advancedco.com.
• KIDDE FIRE SYSTEMS launched a multilanguage version of the ARIES NETLink Multi-Loop Intelligent Fire Alarm-Suppression Control Unit, which now supports French, Spanish, and Portuguese in addition to English. Designed for a broader, non-English-speaking audience and for use where UL/FM-listed products are accepted, the new ARIES NetLink enables Kidde channel partners to interact with and configure the control unit in the language of their region. This new functionality will help ensure event notifications are displayed with full clarity and no ambiguity or loss of understanding because of translation, which is of critical importance in emergencies. www.kiddefiresystems.com.
• THE WILDFIRE MITIGATION AWARDS COMMITTEE announced its 2015 Wildfire Mitigation Award Winners. Established in 2014 in response to an overwhelming number of great wildfire mitigation program efforts across the nation, the Wildfire Mitigation Awards are the highest national honor one can receive for outstanding work and significant program impact in wildfire preparedness and mitigation. The awards are jointly sponsored by the National Fire Protection Association, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, and the USDA Forest Service. The three award categories are Fire Adapted Communities Fire Service Leadership, Wildfire Mitigation Innovation, and Community Wildfire Preparedness Pioneer. View the list of winners at www.nfpa.org/press-room/news-releases/2015/partnership-announces-inaugural-wildfire-mitigation-awardees.
• The NATIONAL VOLUNTEER FIRE COUNCIL (NVFC) and COLUMBIA SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY (CSU) announced Joseph Ondrasek Jr. and Marc Veilleux as the winners of the 2014 NVFC-CSU Scholarships. This is the sixth year the NVFC has teamed with CSU to provide two NVFC members with scholarships through a competitive application process. Each recipient gets 100 percent of tuition to CSU paid for up to two years. The scholarship can be applied to any of CSU’s online degree programs. In addition to the annual scholarship opportunity, all NVFC members and their spouses and children are eligible to receive a 10-percent tuition discount and waived application fee to CSU. www.nvfc.org. www.columbiasouthern.edu.
• FOX VALLEY TECHNICAL COLLEGE (FVTC) in Appleton, Wisconsin, opened a $35 million integrated training center in January. FVTC is the primary facility for nationwide AMBER Alert training and a leading entity in training for Internet Crimes against Children as well as regularly host training sessions for police and fire departments nationwide. The new facility features 75 acres of indoor and outdoor tactical training space; a water rescue pond; River City, a simulated training village with a motel, homes, and convenience store, provides scenarios that simultaneously involve police, firefighters, and emergency medical service personnel; and a six-story burn tower for fire training. www.fvtc.edu.
• KME delivered a variety of airfield fire apparatus to the United States Air Force (USAF), which included state-of-the-art ultra-high pressure (UHP) firefighting pumping systems. USFA contract’s models include 144 rapid intervention vehicles, five 4×4 Class 4 ARFF apparatus, and 21 6×6 Class 5 ARFF apparatus with rear steer capability. UHP pumping capability offers the USAF a number of benefits which may have other uses in municipal, industrial and wildland firefighting as well which include. A video of these trucks can be found online at www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDrH3QaVAI4. www.kovatch.com.
Fire Engineering Archives
