City provides update on Fire Safety House program

8/28/2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 28, 2012

Contact:
Jeannie Roberts (440) 885-8181 or (216) 346-9935

PARMA, Ohio -- Mayor Tim DeGeeter announced the city is making progress on a plan to save the Fire Safety House and the adjacent Burn Room -- a development that reiterates the administration's commitment to fire safety education for area school children.

After months of reviewing potential locations in the city, DeGeeter said the goal is to relocate the small bungalow to the campus of the Health Education Center, a Parma Community General Hospital property on State Road.

However, before that prospective move takes place, the Fire Safety House (FSH) and Burn Room will be moved temporarily to a parking lot close to Medical Arts Center 4 near the main hospital campus – a move that is necessary so that the current location of the house on Powers Blvd. can be purposed for part of a multi-million project for a new Cuyahoga County Public Library.

The move is expected to take place in less than a week to the temporary site until November at the latest, when the house will be relocated to its permanent location.

“We’re committed to saving the fire safety program,” DeGeeter said. “Everybody knows how important this program is and will continue to be. We also truly appreciate the hospital's willingness to partner on this important endeavor."

The city also is putting together an informal group -- coordinated by Parma Fire Chief John French and made up of individuals from the surrounding communities that are part of the FSH program -- to help spearhead the effort to establish the FSH to its permanent site. In order to secure the necessary funding for the project, the group will reach out to community leaders and to officials and fire departments in those communities.

No final cost has been estimated, although the relocation of the FSH to the center could cost more than $100,000 to, among other things, build a foundation for the house and attach utilities to the structure, the administration indicated.

While the FSH is being relocated and restored to functionality, French is working on several options to educate Parma's school children about fire safety, including visits by firefighters to local schools.

"We are committed to educating Parma's school children about fire safety," DeGeeter said. "One day, these important lessons could save a life."