Eastern Connecticut EMS Council

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Flashing lights aid in search for crises Woodbury effort tied to 911 calls

Saturday, October 9, 2004

By Paul Singley

Copyright ? 2004 Republican-American

WOODBURY -- This rural town made finding elderly 911 callers easier Friday.

The Woodbury Fire Department bought 150 lights that blink in the window of a 911 caller. The department will pass them out among the town's handful of senior housing developments before the year is out.

The town hopes the lights, which cost $11,250, will trim the time it takes ambulance drivers and firefighters to respond to emergencies. They sometimes lose valuable minutes at night searching for homes set back from the roadway or hidden amid the warrens of elderly housing developments, which resemble apartment complexes.

Called Guide Light 911, the units hook into a phone jack and trigger a blue strobe that blinks on and off for 30 minutes after 911 is called, helping emergency workers locate the crisis.

The first recipient -- a senior housing complex at 19 Judson Ave., which houses roughly 100 people in 48 living units -- should get the lights in the next two weeks, said Fire Marshal Janet Morgan.

The town's senior center will advise the town where next to target, added Fire Chief David Bengtson.

The idea for Guide Light 911 came from Andy Gorman, a retired Waterbury police officer, who first conceived of it 10 years ago when he found himself wasting time searching for the scene of a domestic dispute. By the time he arrived, the suspect had fled and a woman had been badly beaten, Clark told the Republican-American last year.

Robert Zinno, president of Guide Light 911, bought the patent and began developing the product. Last year, the company donated 60 units to residents of the Spruce Bank elderly housing development in town. Ambulances benefited from the flashing lights many times, Morgan said.

While the lights help emergency workers find callers in senior housing developments, "these work great even for houses with long driveways in the woods," Bengtson said.

The Woodbury Fire Department bought the light systems using most of a $13,000 fire prevention grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The balance of the grant will go toward replacing the batteries on the lights at Spruce Bank and paying for replacement batteries on the new units.

The Middlebury manufacturer of Guide Light 911, Emergency Safety Systems, sold the units at nearly half price to the fire department, Zinno said.

The systems retail for $139.99. The fire department paid $75 for each. "Timing is everything in an emergency," Zinno said.

units help the departments find houses faster."

To learn more about Guide Light 911, visit the company's web site at www.guidelight911.com.