Insurance - WAFB 9 News Baton Rouge, Louisiana News, Weather, Sports

Insurance

In 6 months, they'll be moving into a new building, but until then, some employees at the Louisiana Department of Insurance Building will have to stop what they're doing every half hour and look for fires. Twelve people in the building are assigned to act as fire wardens. They put on an orange vest and carry a two way radio then go room to room sniffing for smoke and looking for fire hazards.

Officials with the state fire marshall's office mandated the patrols because the 31-year old hi-rise has no sprinkler system. Some workers in the building originally thought the idea was silly, but Sandi Ellis, director of human resources says these fire wardens serve a very important role. We want to make sure that our employees are safe and they feel safe in the building.
 [take: continuing vo] {***cont vo***} {***pat***} [readrate:15] after each round, the fire wardens log what they find on a sign in sheet. The fire wardens patrol from 7 in the morning until 5:30 every evening. The department of insurance will likely move into a new state building by the river in december. ###