Public Building Keys Kept in Locked Box On Ladder Truck
The installation of fire detection systems in municipal buildings has raised a problem that the Windsor, Conn., Fire Department has solved by attaching a locked box containing sets of building keys to its aerial ladder truck.
With the greater sophistication of fire detection systems has come an increasing rate of false alarms. By having keys for public buildings available on an apparatus, the Town of Windsor is spared the cost of replacing door panels every time the fire department responds to a false alarm.
Waiting for a town employee to arrive with a key was not the answer because that gave an unseen fire time to gain headway. The Windsor Fire Department officers felt that they should have keys available upon their arrival at the scene of a detector alarm. At the same time, they believed that any set of keys for a town building should be protected against improper use.
Therefore, a sheet metal box was permanently attached to the metal side of the cab bench seat on the department’s aerial ladder truck. On the right side of the seat, the box is easily accessible by opening the cab door on that side, and the keys are protected by a cylinder lock on the box door. Only officers have keys to the box and because most of the department’s pre-fire plans place the aerial at the front of the building, the officers don’t have to go out of their way to get the keys.
The dimensions of the box we use are unimportant. The box should be large enough to hold the number of keys that may eventually be acquired.
Does our system work? The answer is found in our experience. It takes only about 45 seconds from the arrival of the aerial until fire fighters enter a building for which we have keys.
