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Stateside Comment US Correspondent Catherine Levin reports on promoting the use of smoke alarms
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here’s a gallery at the Whitney Museum of American Art called The New. It is filled with domestic objects: a toaster, a kettle, a dial telephone and lots of vacuum cleaners. This is the 1980s work of artist Jeff Koons. The curator advises us that “the inexorable quest for the new and improved in both art and commerce is inherently shadowed by the threat of obsolescence”. Koons stuck with the most common household items and they do look incredibly dated,
even though they are preserved and pristine. I wonder if Koons had chosen a smoke alarm as part of his work, whether we would really have noticed the difference 30 years on? The US firm, NEST, focuses on unloved objects like the smoke alarm and the thermostat, redesigning them for a modern age. If Koons repeated his work in 2014 would he choose a NEST alarm? It looks pretty cool, comes in black, and with stylish, Apple-inspired design marks itself apart from its competitors. Kidde, a major supplier of smoke alarms in the US, sticks with the circular white design of the traditional smoke alarm but has begun to differentiate its packaging by room. Kidde has an alarm for the kitchen that is a combined ten year smoke and CO alarm but it tells you this only at the bottom of the packaging in relatively small type. It seems that the design of the smoke alarm is so well
known that Kidde doesn’t even shout out that it is one. The packaging reassures us that it is “Worry-free”, focusing on the maintenance of an object that is so well known. And this is right: focus on maintenance, focus on testing. Unfortunately there’s no single, unified message about smoke alarm maintenance for the US fire sector to coalesce around. There is the annual Fire Prevention Week which has been around since the 1920s and starts this year on October 5 with the theme “working smoke alarms save lives: test yours every month”. This is great, but it’s just this year’s theme and not enduring throughout the year. The UK has got a much better grip on this issue, although what advice you get depends on who you ask. ‘Test it Tuesday’ suggests a weekly regime and is heavily advertised on Twitter by CFOA. ‘Time to Test’
recommends monthly testing and is used by Fire Kills in their quirky 30 second ads on You Tube. ‘Tick Tock Test’ focuses primarily on testing twice a year when the clocks change and is also backed by Fire Kills which has been using that rather sad looking bunny next to a melted clock in their ad campaigns. I love a bit of alliteration but it’s all a bit confusing. In all the advertising the smoke alarm is central, whether the words are up front or the packaging shows what it looks like. It is clear what it is and what to do: the action is the same and that’s the beauty of it. The fancy curators at the Whitney may have been worried about the obsolescence of common objects, but even NEST put a great big button in the middle of their smoke alarm when they reimagined it for a modern age. Sometimes you simply have to leave things alone, because they just work.
Road safety champion honoured for a lifetime’s work Road safety champion for Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service, Station Manager Martin Dowle, has been honoured for his lifelong commitment and dedication to road safety not only in Cheshire, but across the UK
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artin Dowle, from Tarporley and based at the service headquarters in Winsford, was presented with his award by Fire Minister Penny Mordaunt at the Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA) conference at Burton-upon-Trent on September 15.
CFOA President Peter Dartford said: “There is huge commitment and dedication from many people who work behind the scenes for the greater good of the Fire and Rescue Service. As an association we see an enormous amount of passion, expertise and perseverance from individuals within our professional partners. “Martin Dowle has been a stalwart for road safety both for Cheshire and nationally for years and is the most passionate advocate and person for road safety education.” Cheshire’s Chief Fire Officer Paul Hancock added: “Whenever you think of a person totally committed to road safety you,
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without doubt, place Martin’s name in the frame. “Martin has been CFOA’s north west representative for road safety and vice chair of the Road Safety Executive Board. His support for Dave Etheridge, the current Chair of the CFOA Road Safety Executive Board, has been nothing short of exemplary.” The numbers of people killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads has steadily declined over many years and CFOA is in no doubt that Martin’s interest, passion, commitment and dedication will have greatly assisted in this achievement and made the UK a safer place to travel. CFO Hancock continued: “He has made a massive and positive
impact across the country, both instigating and overseeing the National Road Safety Week which has involved nearly every service in the UK. “His approach to working with partners, creating relationships and jointly delivering messages and events, has led to CFOA and fire and rescue services nationally quickly becoming a partner of choice for many agencies involved in the world of road safety. “Martin has formed productive and trusted links with the public and private sectors as well as the charity sector, in particular the national road safety charity BRAKE. He has also ensured that the work of CFOA and