Ronald McDonald House Gets $1.5M Life Safety Upgrade

BIRMINGHAM, Conn.—Prestige Alarm and Specialty Products Inc. of Birmingham, Ala. has donated an E3 Series expandable emergency evacuation system by Gamewell-FCI to the Birmingham Ronald McDonald House.

In 2003, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Alabama (RMHCA) officials assessed the facility and found it needed $2 million in repairs and renovations. However, the RMHCA Board of Directors voted instead to build a new facility with a goal of raising $6.75 million in funding.

Prestige Alarm CEO Eddie Harden offered to donate the E3 fire alarm system in his children’s names. The donation also included the installation and three years of monitoring and maintenance services.

According to Harden, the fire protection system installed at the new Ronald McDonald House includes smoke detectors in each guest room and common areas, as well as facility-wide pull stations, speakers, annunciators and control modules for integrating elevator and HVAC control. It also includes wireless radio communications for monitoring the system at Prestige’s central office without the use of telephone lines. The system is capable of supporting a network of up to 64 nodes and more than 20,000 sensors.

The new 33,000 square-foot, three-story Ronald McDonald House features 41 bedrooms, an elevator, private bathrooms, a family-style kitchen and common areas. The total installation reached over $1.5 million in donations from Prestige Alarm.

“I’ve seen families receive the blessing of the Ronald McDonald House. It meant a lot to me to be a part of the new facility and provide a system that will protect lives there for many years,” Harden says.

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