The Statewide Smoke Alarm Canvassing Day event was a huge success for Moore County and North Carolina in the ongoing effort to prevent fire deaths.
Aberdeen Fire Department, along with several other fire departments across the state, went door to door in parts of their fire district on June 23 to replace non-working or non-existing smoke alarms with new alarms.
The Town of Aberdeen said in a written statement, “Smoke alarms were not always required when a home was built.” That is one of the reasons for the canvassing event.
According to North Carolina Insurance Commissioner, Mike Causey, who also serves as the State Fire Marshal, “With the assistance of the American Red Cross, Kidde, Nationwide Insurance and dozens of local fire departments, volunteers and organizers with the Office of State Fire Marshal installed 3,130 smoke alarms to residents and homeowners in North Carolina in one day.”
More than 90 North Carolina fire departments went to nearly 4,000 homes to check for the presence of working smoke alarms and install new ones, free of charge.
Causey, in a news release, said that of the thousands of homes checked in North Carolina, the following information was found:
~1,137 homes had non-working smoke alarms
~517 homes had no smoke alarms
~3,130 smoke alarms needed to be installed because there was not enough coverage for the home
According to Causey, 91 North Carolinians have died in fires since the beginning of the year. The is eight more deaths than last year and the year is only half over. There was no working smoke detector in many of those homes.
Causey offered the following fire preparedness tips:
~Place a smoke alarm on every level of your home outside sleeping areas. If you keep bedroom doors shut, place a smoke alarm in each bedroom.
~Teach children what the smoke alarm sounds like and what to do when they hear it.
~Prepare and practice an escape plan – know at least two ways out of a room, crawl low under smoke and plan where to meet outside.
~Keep smoke alarms clean by regularly vacuuming over and around it. Dust and debris can interfere with its operation.
~Install smoke alarms away from windows, doors, or ducts that can interfere with their operation.
~Never remove the battery from or disable a smoke alarm. If your smoke alarm is sounding “nuisance alarms,” try locating it further from kitchens or bathrooms.
For Moore County residents, if you do not have a smoke alarm, working alarm, or an alarm that is over 10 years old, please call your town’s fire department to schedule a time when a firefighter can come replace your detector.
Feature photo courtesy of Aberdeen Fire Department.
