| Note: This is a copy of an article in the Carroll County Times, written by Isaac Baker and published September 27, 2006. The Sykesville-Freedom District Fire Department will be receiving some of the smoke alarms. Please watch our website for further details on distribution plans. The text of the article follows.
Some Carroll County residents could get a visit from county firefighters and possibly a free smoke detector next month.
The Carroll County Volunteer Emergency Services Association will give fire companies 1,000 smoke alarms for distribution throughout the county.
Firefighters then plan to go door to door with the detectors and fire safety information in October, giving the devices to residents without them, said Leon Fleming, liaison to the association.
The Carroll County Board of Commissioners approved $4,000 Tuesday morning to purchase 1,000 detectors.
The move comes after three Carroll residents were killed in two house fires this summer.
The State Fire Marshal's Office determined that in both incidents - an Eldersburg fire that killed 78-year-old man and his 51-year-old son in July and a blaze in Woodbine that killed a 39-year-old man in August - there was no functioning smoke alarm in the house, a factor that might have contributed to the deaths.
Spurred by the fatalities, fire officials went door to door surveying residents in the neighborhoods and telling them about the importance of smoke detectors.
They found that about half of the houses they surveyed didn't have working smoke alarms, a discovery fire officials said was startling.
New houses in Carroll are required to have smoke detectors, said Robert Boone of the county's Bureau of Permits and Inspections.
While the 1,000 smoke detectors are welcome, the need is far greater, said Scott Legore, Winfield fire department's public information officer.
"It'll help, but it's only a drop in the bucket," Legore said.
Steve Powell, the commissioners' chief of staff, said the detectors will be distributed to all the fire companies in the county, which would then give the devices to residents as they're needed.
He said the county would also try to seek out donations of smoke detectors.
Fleming said fire departments would also keep some alarms on hand in case residents wanted to come in and get one.
"The fire departments would see that they get a smoke detector," he said.
Reach staff writer Isaac Baker at 410-857-7865 or bakeri@lcniofmd.com. |
