Written by Ben Cox – After Brownwood High School officer Fred Bastardo heard about a program being used in other schools across the country to thwart on campus intruders, he felt Brownwood should get on board.

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Called a ‘Safety Sleeve’ the device is a four to six inch piece of old fire hose that slid over the closing mechanism of campus doors, preventing them from being opened.

Bastardo reached out to Brownwood Fire Marshall Buddy Preston, and the two collaborated on the plan earlier this year. In an email sent to the district office, Bastardo said “We both believe that this would be a good thing to put in place for the district. While we understand that this is not the answer for everything, we do believe this would be a good starting in slowing down an intruder that was attempting to breach the door.”

Fire Chief Eddy Wood says the donation is beneficial not only to the school system, but the Fire Department as well. “We have a replacement program where we’re phasing out old hose and getting new, and we ended up with probably 45 sections of fire hose that are 50 feet in length. The question is ‘what do you do with it?’ So we donated the hose to the school district to be chopped up and placed over their closure systems if need be. It’s a pretty good use of the old stuff we would otherwise have to throw away.”

The hoses are pretty tough, despite being unfit for continued use as fire hose. Made of a rubber sleeve and an outer nylon jacket, Wood says the hose “is very resilient and should last for quite a while.” He added that the fire department is proud to be able to offer this to help protect the students of Brownwood ISD.

School Superintendent Dr Joe Young says “Safety of our students and staff is our primary goal. We can only begin to educate and grow after we feel safe. Security of a school system is multi-faceted and an enormous task.”

Young continues “Our public safety agencies within Brownwood ISD have been key partners in helping us not only create, but implement, a comprehensive plan. Following up on teacher recommendations, which came out of training we did this summer, the Brownwood Fire Department has stepped up to donate fire hose to be used as a secondary door security device. Thanks to Chief Wood, Fire Marshall Preston, and Officer Bastardo who have been the driving forces behind making this happen. Our school system and city are lucky to have these leaders working to keep us safe.”

The Fire Department will be having an open house this Saturday at 9 a.m. The public are invited to tour the new fire house and get an in depth look at the day to day work done by the men and women of Brownwood’s Fire Department.

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