Bethel Fire Dept.’s Experience Will Help Improve Its Service

By Mary Anderson

The Bethel Fire Department recently responded to a fire that left assistant fire chief David Aldrighetti wondering how he could improve service to the local community.

The chief’s quandary lay not in the quality of firefighting service, but rather in how to best alert the missing homeowner of his plight. Since the owner was not at home and it was the middle of winter, he had no idea that his water pipes were now in danger of freezing, as were his two pet cats.

With true small town consideration, Aldrighetti and a neighbor of the house which had burned, put their heads together to come up with a solution. The neighbor kept a woodstove going in the house and took care of the cats, while Aldrighetti tried tracking the man down at his workplace. Unfortunately, after going through red tape at the man’s workplace, Aldrighetti discovered that, on that particular evening, the owner was working at a second job for which no one seemed to know the contact information.

Thus, the owner did not discover the fire until he returned home the following morning and found his house in shambles. However, thanks to his neighbor and to Aldrighetti, he also found his cats alive, his pipes intact and a note from Aldrighetti detailing what had happened.

As a result of this experience Aldrighetti got to thinking about how important pets are to people, and the further damage that can happen to them and to a vacant home after the fire is extinguished. Not wanting to see this type of situation repeated, Aldrighetti talked with his fellow firefighters and has come up with a system that will improve the fire department’s ability to locate absent residents in case of a fire.

All Bethel residents are asked to write on two sheets of paper the following information; name, 911 address, home, cell, work and emergency phone numbers, a veterinary phone number, where applicable, and any other pertinent information such as possible elders or children present in the home. It is important that the emergency contact know how to reach the homeowner. One of these information sheets is to be placed by the resident’s phone. The other is to be sent to the fire department where it will be entered into a database that will be accessed in the event of an emergency.

In addition, Aldrighetti reminds people that the fire department has orange child finder signs available, which can be placed in bedroom windows where children, or disabled or elderly folks, may need help in the event of a fire.

Aldrighetti notes that while providing this information to the fire department is voluntary, he hopes that all residents will comply.

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