Borough fire department within reach of grant

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The Naugatuck Fire Department is only a few votes away from winning a $10,000 grant. Take the quiz online at www.BeFireSmart.com-naugatuck-fire-dept to win for Naugatuck.

NAUGATUCK — The Naugatuck Fire Department is one spot away from winning a $10,000 grant, but it needs more votes if it’s going to walk away with the money.

Liberty Mutual Insurance is offering 10 grants to fire departments across the country that can get the most people to take an online fire safety quiz.

As of Monday morning, Naugatuck was number seven on the leader board for the Fire Safety Pledge contest. The top six vote-getters in the medium fire department division will earn a grant.

Half way through the two-month pledge effort, Naugatuck is trailing the sixth place Weymouth Fire Department of Massachusetts by 36 quiz-takers. Naugatuck had 369 credits, compared to front-runner Wilmington Fire Department of Massachusetts with 667 credits.

The quiz opened Sept. 1 and closes Oct. 31.

The quiz consists of 10 simple questions designed for both children and adults and winning the grant is not predicated on answering correctly.

If Naugatuck wins the grant, a good portion of the earnings will be rolled back into fire prevention and education, according to Deputy Fire Chief Ellen Murray. She said the fire department’s budget for education was cut again this year, to $500.

“I have faith in this community to come together and help us with this much-needed grant,” Murray said in an earlier interview.

The grants are awarded to towns based on size and percentage of people who took the quiz. Naugatuck, like most towns, is in the medium division for towns with 10,000 to 100,000 residents. There are six grants available for this division.

Anyone can take the quiz on Naugatuck’s behalf, even if they don’t live in town. Entries are limited to one per e-mail address.

Anyone interested in taking the quiz can do so online at www.BeFireSmart.com-naugatuck-fire-dept. Make sure to confirm your e-mail address after taking the quiz.