The River Forest Fire Department was honored with a 2006 Life Safety Acheivement Award from the Residential Fire Safety Institute (RFSI) recently. The award, which has been presented the past 14 years, is given to fire departments around the country that recorded no deaths from structural fires.
The River Forest department is one of 675 fire departments around the country to have received the award since Oct. 1.
“The Life Safety Achievement Award recognizes fire departments for their fire prevention efforts and encourages them to continually improve those efforts,” said RFSI Director Roy L. Marshall.
The RFSI is a public interest group dedicated to reducing residential fire deaths and injuries. It advocates the use of residential fire sprinklers, smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors. In 2006, River Forest adopted an ordinance mandating residential sprinklers in new construction and major rahabs.
The Oak Park Fire Department did not receive the award, but also recorded no deaths from fires last year, according to Deputy Fire Chief Mark Puknaitis.
