The Fire Department is teaming up with the senior center and Rotary Club of Lynnfield for a more rapid response when seniors suffer at-home medical emergencies.
House keys secured in a front door-mounted lock box allow firefighters responding to emergency calls to use a master key to access the box, get the key, and enter the home to render aid.
“In an emergency only the Fire Department can open the box but they can open it quickly,” said outgoing Rotary President Ron Block.
Fire Chief Glenn Davis said 70 percent of the 2,020 Lynnfield calls the department responded to in 2018 were medical calls. Many involved seniors. Firefighters rushing to help someone are forced in some instances to break down a door to get into a home.
Davis said the lock boxes are secure and are small enough to easily mount on the corner of a door exterior with a single screw. The master key is only assigned to the Fire Department and is the only means of opening the reinforced box.
“It gives us immediate access to someone’s home,” Davis said. “It will only be used by us and we will be doing the installation.”
The chief said lock box installations are also an opportunity for firefighters to check for working smoke alarms in senior’s homes and discuss safe storage of prescription medicines.
“It’s our way to create a more senior-safe Lynnfield,” the chief said.
ElderAct Club, the Rotary’s and senior center’s volunteer collaboration, is supplying lock boxes free to seniors 80 years old and older and $25 for seniors 60-80.
For more information on the lock boxes, email Block at [email protected]
