In the spring, two departments teamed up to inspect fire extinguishers. Frank Marcinkiewicz, the fire marshall, recognized that John Hirsch at the Life Safety shop was doing the best he could with limited resources due to the pandemic. Keeping up with fire extinguisher inspections was difficult without the support of student temps who normally help accomplish this task. 

Some EHS staff were working at a reduced capacity so Frank reached out to John to see if he could use some help. “John indicated he would welcome the assistance, so I reached out to my team to see if anyone was willing to help out,” Frank said. “I received an overwhelming response.”

One of the EHS staffers who stepped up to inspect fire extinguishers for a few weeks was Claude Crumb. He enjoyed it so much he has asked to continue assisting when he has any free time in his regular schedule! Claude explains that he felt “honored to have the opportunity to ensure that researchers and scientists working hard to solve our pandemic crisis are safe in their work areas.”

Frank notes, “This was a great opportunity for two different F&O departments to collaborate and allow staff to experience a new area they wouldn’t normally get to do.”