Tasty! Pizza Hut And Spring Lake, Blaine, Mounds View Fired Dept., (SBMFD) Promote Smoke Alarm Awareness In An Appetizing Way

Tasty! Pizza Hut And Spring Lake, Blaine, Mounds View Fire Dept., (SBMFD) Promote Smoke Alarm Awareness In An Appetizing Way

The SBM Fire Department has a simple message for North Metro residents – working smoke detectors in your home are critical.

“One of the most important things you can have to keep your home safe,” said Ashley Krepsky from the SBM Fire Department.

In early April, SBM and Pizza Hut teamed up to get this message out. They found a tasty way to raise awareness about the importance of checking smoke alarms by appealing to people’s appetites.

The smoke alarm blitz became a successful night for everyone involved.

WATCH

“We are going to go around and deliver some pizzas with Pizza Hut,” said SBM’s Chuck Fleury. “Whoever calls in from 4 to 6 tonight, we’re going to go out and surprise them. Hopefully make sure their smoke alarms work. If they do, we’re going to buy the pizza for them. If they don’t we’re gonna offer batteries, smoke alarms, install them.”

Fleury and his cohorts gladly traveled around Blaine to make sure pizza-hungry residents had alarms that were operating properly. The experts doled out tips such as telling residents to test smoke alarms every month by pushing the button to make sure it works, and to replace batteries when daylight savings time rolls around.

“Everybody loves pizza”

Pizza Hut was ecstatic to be part of the alarm awareness program and was eager to promote the SBM message in this unique way.

“We’ve been doing fundraisers with the fire department,” said Laura Grantham, who is the General Manager at Pizza Hut in Blaine. “We’ve already done two. We have got another one coming up. I got an email and I reached back out and here we are, getting it going.”

A total of 17 pizzas and other food items were given away.

“Everybody loves pizza,” Grantham said.

A total of nine new smoke detectors were put in and approximately 45 of these circular objects were checked to make sure they functioned properly.

“In the fire service smoke alarms are very important to the fire department,” Fleury said. “We want to get out and educate the people and let them know how important they are. Statistics show that working smoke alarms in homes doubles your chance of getting out, so we want to promote smoke alarms. Fire doubles every 30 seconds. We want to let ’em know that the smoke alarm is their nose at night because your nose falls asleep with you, but your ears don’t.”

“We want to make sure that we’re finding creative avenues to get into the home,” Krepsky said. “To make sure that they and the families are safe.”

Grateful resident

Missy Siong welcomed the firefighters into her Blaine house and was grateful for their expertise and generosity.

“As a mom I just want to keep my family safe,” Siong said. “I want to make sure that our house is compliant and safe, smoke detectors are working. I feel so much more comfort now knowing that the professionals are here checking everything out and making sure that my house is safe.”

“She gets free pizzas because she had working smoke alarms in the house,” Fleury said.

SBM fire trucks logged a lot of miles rolling through various Blaine neighborhoods on this night. When crews showed up at the door along with a delivery person, most residents were shocked to find out they were getting more than pizza.

“It was quite a shock to have your fire department deliver your pizza so that was super great,” said Jenn, a Blaine resident. “We loved that there was extra safety and that all of our fire alarms were working. It was a great check. We loved it.”

This outside the box idea was definitely a snapshot in time – pizza and smoke alarms proved to be a winning combination.

SOURCE: NORTH METRO TV