Residential Knox HomeBox options for Osceola Fire District

The Residential Knob HomeBox is an option for Osceola residents.

The Osceola Volunteer Fire Department hopes the Knox Box will be seen in more commercial properties and residential homes.

The device holds a key to the property’s main entrance for emergency crews or law enforcement to use to enter the home if no one is inside or unable. The box can only be entered with keys that are secured in the OVFD engines and can only be accessed with an individual code. All access times and dates for the boxes are recorded.

“When time is critical or when a no-damage entry is needed this provides immediate access to first responders,” said Byron Jimmerson, OVFD Chief.

“It’s for anybody with any smoke, fire, or carbon monoxide detector that puts a call out to a service that calls the fire department when they’re not home,” said Jimmerson. “We don’t want to damage doors if we can avoid it and with the HomeBox it’s a small investment so we can get in and check for smoke, fire and clear the area. It’s duel purpose. It’s for any reason that law enforcement, fire, EMS would need to enter, it gives us a secure way to do that.”

The Knox HomeBox ranges from $170 to $187 depending on the configuration. They can be permanent mounted to an exterior wall or a secure door hanger.

“It’s also for someone who’s entering a time in their life when they may be having a lot of falls and they don’t want to, or family doesn’t want to, actually bolt it to the home they can hang it on the door and when the door is closed it’s secure. So then it’s more of a temporary type of situation,” said Jimmerson.

HomeBoxes can be purchased online at https://www.knoxbox.com/Products/Residential-KnoxBoxes. On the site visitors will choose their state and local fire department, then they will choose OVFD residential use only- HomeBoxes. The HomeBox page will then pop up and visitors will choose which style they prefer, either wall mount or door hanger.

“There’s lot’s more folks staying at long term now it seems like, said Jimmerson. “It’s at least weekly that the ambulance is going to folks who have fallen or need to be checked on. It’s not weekly that we run into a situation where we can’t get in but it is pretty frequent. For $187 it’s a pretty cheap investment, really, to have quick and efficient response for ambulance and fire departments.”