Hopkins Hill Fire Marshal Receives Community Service Award

On Thursday afternoon, friends, family, colleagues and Liberty Mutual representatives gathered at to honor Fire Marshal Mark Vincent for his commitment to ensuring the safety of the community.

Vincent was awarded the Liberty Mutual Firemark Award for Community Service and Public Education, as presented by Liberty Mutual Sr. Branch Manager Melissa King-Platt from the company’s Cranston office. The Firemark Award is presented annually to hundreds of firefighters throughout the country "who best represent their communities through courageous acts and who best demonstrate the firefighter’s selfless spirit."

Hopkins Hill Fire Chief Frank Brown nominated Vincent for the award because he "lives the fire code 24/7 and gives 100% all the time."

Within his nomination letter, Brown lists the duties that Vincent has within the department, including reviewing new construction plans and documents to determine fire code compliance, inspecting various occupancy types through the fire district, representing the district before the State Fire Safety Code Board of Appeal, overseeing the inspection of smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in homes and assessing the readiness of fire supression systems, extinguishers and alarm systems.

He is also the fire district health and safety officer, instructor for the State Fire Marshal's office and is involved with the Juvenile Fire Setter Intervention Program.

"Mark is well-respected within the Fire Marshal community," said Brown. "The Rhode Island fire code is very comprehensive and difficult to wrap your head around and for him to do what he does is very impressive."

"People all across the state ask him for his opinion and interpretation of the code," he went on to say.

When accepting his award, Vincent thanked his family and friends that were in attendance along with Chief Brown for submitting his name to Liberty Mutual.

"He goes out of his way every day and I appreciate his efforts from the bottom of my heart," said Brown.

As a local Liberty Mutual Firemark Award winner, Vincent will be considered for the 2012 Liberty Mutual National Firemark Award. Two national winners – one honored for heroism, the other for community service/public education – will each receive a $10,000 grant from Liberty Mutual for their fire departments and four tickets to Disney World.