Gase and car wrapped with Sparky the Fire Dog® will be featured at The Yard FLX community event on September 12, NASCAR Xfinity Series race on September 14.
The National Fire Protection Association® (NFPA®), the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control, and Joey Gase Motorsports, LLC are teaming up to drive home the importance of fire safety for communities in Upstate New York. The collaboration between NFPA, Gase, and fire officials is part of an ongoing, collaborative effort to promote Fire Prevention Week™, October 6-12, 2024 and this year’s theme, “Smoke alarms: Make them work for you.™”
On Thursday, September 12, from 4-7 pm, NFPA and Gase, along with local and state public safety officials, are hosting a community event at The Yard FLX go-kart track. Open to the public, area residents will have the opportunity to meet Gase and check out his race car on display while enjoying fire safety activities that reinforce the importance of working smoke alarms and having a home escape plan, including a fire safety house provided by the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control. Sparky the Fire Dog®, the official NFPA mascot, will also be on-site to greet guests and take pictures together. Some attendees will also get the chance to race against Gase during the festivities.
NFPA is sponsoring Gase in a series of NASCAR race events, including the NASCAR Xfinity Series event at the Watkins Glen Speedway on Saturday, September 14 at 3:30 pm.
“Our work with Joey has demonstrated the value and impact of delivering potentially life-saving fire safety messages to thousands of NASCAR fans and surrounding communities,” said Lorraine Carli, vice president of Outreach and Advocacy at NFPA. “Continuing our work together helps further these messages and maximize the reach and impact of Fire Prevention Week, our biggest public awareness campaign of the year.”
Over the past few months, NFPA has also sponsored Gase at races in Newton, IA and Daytona Beach, FL. Additional races and community events will be sponsored in Talladega, AL and Charlotte, NC, and in surrounding communities in the weeks ahead.
“We are pleased to partner with NFPA on this family-friendly event,” said New York State Fire Administrator James B. Cable. “Helping educate the community about fire safety, especially in the home, can go a long way to prevent the devastation that can come with a fire.”
This year’s Fire Prevention Week theme, “Smoke alarms: Make them work for you” focuses on the importance of having working smoke alarms. According to NFPA’s latest smoke alarms report, smoke alarms reduce the risk of dying in a fire by more than half (60 percent). However, the majority of U.S. home fire deaths occur in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms.
“It’s an honor to work with NFPA and help remind people that home fires can and do still happen, and that they need to be prepared in the event of one,” said Joey Gase, owner and driver for Joey Gase Motorsports. “My hope in working together is that we can motivate people to take action around home fire safety, which includes taking simple but important steps like making sure they have working smoke alarms in their homes and testing them regularly.”
Fire Prevention Week is celebrated throughout America every October and is the oldest U.S. public health observance on record. For more than 100 years, Fire Prevention Week has worked to educate people the risk of home fires and ways to minimize them. Local fire departments, schools, and community organizations play a key role in bringing Fire Prevention Week to life in their communities each year and spreading basic but critical fire safety messages.
