The Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal (SFM) is proud to announce its selection as one of the first award recipients of a new federal grant aimed at combating carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning across the country.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Prevention Grant Program (COPPGP) award, totaling $50,000, allows the agency to obtain hundreds of carbon monoxide detectors and generator safety signs to elevate awareness about the dangers of CO, especially related to generator use, and to increase CO poisoning prevention measures across Louisiana.
The program, authorized through the Nicholas and Zachary Burt Memorial Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Prevention Act of 2022, supports eligible state, local, and tribal governments with grants to purchase and install CO alarms in residential homes and dwelling units of low-income families or elderly people and facilities that serve children or the elderly, including childcare centers, public schools and senior centers, and to develop training and public education programs with the goal of preventing CO poisoning.
“We are overjoyed to make this announcement as we ask Louisianans to continue to be conscious of their generator use heading into the heart of hurricane season,” said State Fire Marshal Chief Bryan J Adams, “Having a game plan for disaster includes ways to prevent disaster altogether. This grant helps us do that by educating residents about generator safety and equipping families that use generators with a critical carbon monoxide warning tool like these detectors.”
The SFM is one of 22 recipients receiving a total of $3 million in funding for this first-time effort. Awardees are responsible for matching 25% of the cost; for Louisiana, that’s $12,500. One of the deciding factors for Louisiana’s award was the new carbon monoxide law that went into effect Jan. 1, 2023 requiring all one and two-family dwellings to have at least one, sealed battery CO detector installed at the time of lease or sale.
Similar to the agency’s free smoke alarm installation program, Operation Save-A-Life, the SFM will partner with local fire departments to provide these CO alarms to families that need them most in their communities and to distribute the generator safety signs in the immediate aftermath of a disaster involving widespread, extended power outages.