Pluggie promotes fire safety and prevention Published Oct. 29, 2009 By Master Sgt. Stan Coleman Public Affairs DOBBINS AIR RESERVE BASE, Ga. -- He's 3 feet 5 inches tall, battery-powered and has plenty of personality. With a name like Pluggie, he should have personality. It takes plenty of personality to inform and promote fire safety awareness as a fire hydrant. Pluggie is a remote-controlled robot that serves as an interactive education tool. Pluggie's formal name is "Pluggie The Fire Plug" and is manufactured by Robotronics. He moves, talks, closes his mechanical eyes and is fire-truck red. "He entertains and educates the public about fire safety and prevention," said Chief Bill Wilson, Assistant Chief of Fire Prevention. The DARB Fire Emergency Services organization falls under the public safety responsibility of the 94th Mission Support Group. "The talking fire hydrant concept enhances our public safety education program," said Chief Wilson. "Pluggie demonstrates life-like movement of the eyes and eyelids and has the ability to communicate through a two-way voice communication system that enables the operator to talk and answer questions." Pluggie has a water squirt feature as well as a siren. He also has a cassette tape player to communicate pre-recorded messages and has the ability to turn in all directions and move on his own power. "With Pluggie, we can deliver a good of amount of messages on fire safety and prevention," said Mark A. Berkenmeier, Fire Protection Inspector and one of several operators of the Pluggie robot. "Pluggie attracts more attention and interest in our fire prevention messages. Having a robot to deliver our presentations will work well with all audiences, especially our youth." "The biggest challenge in promoting fire prevention is finding new ways to provide and promote fire safety and prevention," said Chief Wilson. "People have a tendency to take fire safety for granted and think that fire is something that happens to the other person. "The truth is that fire safety and prevention requires constant vigilance of situations that may change and compromise a person's ability to correctly respond to or prevent a fire," he said. "The day to day efforts we take to educate enforce and correct fire safety hazards has resulted in minimal fire loss throughout the Dobbins community."
