The Manhattan Fire Department continues to strive for excellence in protecting the community.
Jake Powell, MFD Fire Marshall, says the technology continues to advance and they have started to use those new technologies to their advantage. Powell talks more about one program called Neighbors Public Safety Service offered by Ring Doorbells.
“They allow Ring users or anybody else that maybe has a security camera or maybe wants to be aware of things going on in their neighborhood, to receive updates and post about things that are happening in their neighborhood.”
Powell says the program isn’t just for those in the community, but also for the fire department as well.
“We can reach out there on this service and ask for information, anybody that has camera footage from a specific date and time, or anybody that had maybe seen something or heard something,” Powell says. “They can provide anonymous information back to us and choose to share their camera footage if they’d like.”
He adds that after fires occur in the area, they now do Neighborhood Canvassing, which is a walk around the area to see who has doorbell cameras that may be able to help in pinpointing the fire cause.
Powell says this time of year also brings in several new families and new college students, which means its a good time of year to remind those renters to purchase renters insurance. He says its a cheap way to protect your belongings and for as little as $20 a month you can get good coverage.
“Renters don’t think about it a lot of times. They assume that, that property owner’s insurance will cover them, but it does not. Your contents and your things that you have in your rental dwelling aren’t covered.”
To learn more about renters insurance, visit cityofmhk.com.
