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BRFD urging residents to sign up for Community Connect to better aid in emergency response
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BATON ROUGE - House fires happen every day, but this year Louisiana experienced another danger: wildfires. For some in our surrounding area, the fires have come close to affecting their homes.
A new tool the Baton Rouge Fire Department is using can help first responders react faster to an emergency should one arise.
Community Connect is a new tool the BRFD rolled out earlier this year, but they're reminding everyone in the parish to sign up now, especially since Louisiana has been experiencing those wildfires.
"When you sign up online, you input the information you think the firefighters can use," said Justin Hill with the Baton Rouge Fire Department. "Once you complete that registration, whenever there's a call dispatched to your house, firefighters will have that information generated to their computer that's in that vehicle. Those calls will pop up with that information so the captain can use that on response."
It's simple. Go to the website, fill out all your personal information about you, your family, and your home or business. This helps firefighters get all that information while they're en route to your home when that emergency happens.
They'll know how many people live there, if there are any pets, how many rooms there are, and whether anyone has special needs. You can also upload pictures of your family and pets.
You can also list everything about your home or business, what type of exterior or siding it may have, along with how many windows or vents, and if any vegetation is surrounding your home.
"If you input that information and you're at work and we're dispatched to your residence or business, you will get an alert, email or text sent to you to alert you that we're en route to your residence or business and let you know what's going on," said Hill.
It's a modern version of stickers that were placed in your window to get all your information. This new tool is now a way to do something similar but electronically, making it easier for firefighters to have all your information while on the way to your home or business.
"Use it," Hill said. "This is something that you can do as a citizen to help us help you in the event of an emergency. The information that you share is secure, they use the same type of encryption that your banking institutions use for their information, so don't worry about that information being shared. This is useful to you as a citizen."
Right now the service is only available for residents and business owners living inside Baton Rouge city limits.
You can sign up here.
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