Gene Booth is the director at the Cumberland County Emergency Services, a department of Fire Marshal. Through an email interview, Booth gives a glimpse of this agency, its objectives, operations as well as some of the partnership it has made to aid in accomplishing the task. The Cumberland County Fire Marshal's Office inspects and fairly enforces all areas of the NC Fire Prevention Code and local ordinances in all occupancies covered by these codes in Cumberland County. The urgency provides arrays of services which all aimed at preparing the citizens in this state to any emergency related to fire. Fire emergency, according to Booth, can come as a result of human-made factors or natural factors such as Volcano. Booth noticed that even though the natural fire causation factors are rare in the state, man-Made fire outbreak is common phenomenal.
The Cumberland County Fire Marshal agency provides different services within its capacity. The central function is to monitor and also ensure that all the offices and building which are supposed to have fire prevention strategies installed are all doing so and adheres to the fire prevention codes. On top of this role, the agency also carries out and provides public education on fire prevention strategies, both natural and human causation factors. The agency also carries out fire Inspection of all schools, daycare homes and centers, nursing and rest homes, foster and group homes. It also ensures that there is assistant for fire department within the state so that in case there is any fire outbreak, there are a clear plan and procedure on how this department can safely handle the matter to prevent damages. The agency also rolls out many activities that gear toward fire prevention within each city in Cumberland County. These are activities which act as a simulation to guide the citizens on how to behave in case there is a fire outbreak ( Fire Marshal's Office, 2019).
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The Cumberland County Fire Marshal agency does not work in isolation. Instead, it partners many organizations with an aim to sharpens its operations and ensure that it meets its objectives. For instance, this agency has partnered many local schools and hospitals as well as many organizations that support its work and ensure that there is adherence to the set standard within its work context. Further, the fire marshal agency is also part of the broad Cumberland County Emergency Services. Cumberland County Emergency Services is a state organization that is committed to excellence by providing quality Emergency Management, 911 Communications, and Fire Code Enforcement services to the citizens of Cumberland County. Under this umbrella, the aim is to offer education and to the local citizens and also ensure that there are enforcements of fire codes to create a better organization that aims at preventing fire within the country.
Besides the local government agency partnerships, the Fire Marshall has also partnered different private entities to get a back-up to help in accomplishing its missions. For instance, it works with Fayetteville Technical Community College Board of Trustees to ensure that there is fire safety at the local cities. Fayetteville Technical Community College Board of Trustees and the Cumberland County Fire Marshalhave agreed to partner on developing a new regional center for firefighter and other emergency responder education and training. These are efforts which are in place to ensure that more citizens acquire knowledge on how to prevent fire outbreak and also report any mater related to fire. The partnership aims to mobilize more people to join the training centers and become ambassadors and champion for fire prevention in the city to reduce the rate of fire emergencies. The partnership also aims to help in the implementation of different fire codes within the state to minimize fire emergencies.
The Federal agencies provided back-up for the local agencies to ensure that they achieve their objective. This department also ensures that there is a financial muscle in addition to plans to ensure that at the local level, there is an adequate resource to help in sensitizing the community about the fire codes and how well they can coordinate to reduce fire emergency. As a result, a federal agency such as the Department of Homeland security has been of great help to the Cumberland County Fire Marshal agency. For instance, the Cumberland County Fire Marshal is one of the agencies that were the beneficiary of the hurricane Florence recovery plan that was provided by the Federal government. The Department of Homeland Security provided this agency with post-Hurricane Clean Effort program and tips on how the agency can educate the citizens on how to remain safe after the hurricane.
Also, The State of North Carolina and FEMA are opening a Disaster Recovery Center in Cumberland County in the city of Fayetteville. The centers offer in-person support to individuals and businesses in the counties included in the North Carolina major disaster declaration for Hurricane Florence and the subsequent floods ( State/FEMA Disaster Recovery Center Opens in Cumberland County | FEMA.gov, 2019). One of the agencies that are beneficiary of this project is the Cumberland County Fire Marshal.
Education is the route through which the agency reaches the community and pass the information on how they should prepare for any fire agency within their residence or workplaces. The agency has different classes that offer essential training and simulation on how people need to handle any fire emergency and how they should prepare for it. Sensitization work best for this agency as people become aware of the fire codes as well as how to prevent and handle any fire emergency.
References
Fire Marshal's Office. (2019). Retrieved 22 July 2019, from http://www.co.cumberland.nc.us/departments/emergency-group/emergency-services/fire-marshal
State/FEMA Disaster Recovery Center Opens in Cumberland County | FEMA.gov. (2019). Retrieved 22 July 2019, from https://www.fema.gov/news-release/2018/09/22/state/fema-disaster-recovery-center-opens-cumberland-county
