Video lands Detroit firefighters free alert system
DETROIT — The struggling Detroit Fire Department is closer to scoring a free emergency alert system, largely due to a Free Press video documenting its jerry-rigged pop-can method that landed on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report."
Officials with a New York startup tech company saw the video and are coming to Detroit on Friday to meet with fire and city officials about donating a modern-day alert system.
If all goes as planned, Detroit could have a new emergency alert system by Oct. 29, which kicks off a weekend citywide neighborhood safety event called Angels' Night, according to Bryx 911 Inc., which specializes in alert systems for fire departments and first responders.
Rick Zicari, the marketing director at Bryx 911, noted that his staff saw the infamous pop can video on Sept. 11, which marked the 13th anniversary of the 2001 terror attacks on the World Trade Center that killed numerous firefighters.
Zicari said one of the company's programmers had seen "The Colbert Report" and sent the office a link to it. The report featured the Free Press video, which showed how firefighters get emergency alerts from a soda can that gets tipped over by a faxed document.
While America laughed at the pop-can gizmo, the Bryx 911 employees cringed.
"We said, 'We need to jump on this.' ... There's no reason that any fire department should be operating like that," Zicari said, noting one employee said, "We could help them." And I said, "We absolutely should help them."
Neither DFD officials nor Detroit Mayor MIke Duggan were available for comment.
According to Zicari, on the same day he saw the video, he contacted the Detroit Fire Department and offered to donate an alert system.
Zicari said within 12 hours of reaching out to Detroit officials, he received a call back. They were interested in what he had to offer, so he and others are coming to Detroit tomorrow to assess the fire stations and see if their software works.
It would cost about $10,000 annually, he said.