The Cedar Hill Fire Protection District wants to help make your house safer and possibly save your life.
The fire district has smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors to give away to those who live in the district, Battalion Chief John Griffith said.
He said the fire district received a $32,705 Federal Emergency Management Agency grant last August and used it to buy about 600 smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and about 300 of those are left.
Griffith said firefighters will install the detectors for those who claim them.
“Our hope is to save lives. That is the goal of the program,” he said. “We wanted to enhance fire protection over the basic smoke detectors that you might get at a big box store that cost $5 or $6. We need smoke detectors that are interconnected. That means if one detector goes off on one end of the house, or the basement or the upper level, all the smoke detectors go off.”
Griffith said the district offers six types of devices – those hardwired with battery backup; battery-operated wireless smoke detectors with Bluetooth capabilities; Google Nest and Blink smart home detectors; bilingual carbon monoxide detectors; and hearing-impaired smoke detectors.
He said the hearing-impaired detector is a device used in conjunction with a normal smoke detector. If a smoke detector goes off, the device for the hearing impaired will emit a low-tone frequency beep and flash the word, “fire,” on a screen. In addition, the person who is hearing impaired may take the device to bed and it will vibrate to wake the person if there is a fire.
“Most home fires that lead to a fatality occur in the evening hours, anywhere from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., and that’s when people are sleeping,” Griffith said. “We want to make sure that if you’re sleeping that you’re able to hear the beep.”
Griffith said smoke and carbon monoxide detectors need to be replaced every 10 years.
“It’s extremely common for us to run into people who have been in their homes for quite a while and never replaced the detectors, because they never had an issue,” he said.
Griffith said while the detectors the district is giving away may be bought at box stores, it’s a plus to get a firefighter to install them.
“We make sure they’ve been installed correctly in the proper location to give these residents the best protection that we can offer,” he said.
Griffith said almost anyone in the district who wants a detector can get one. The exception is for residents who live in newly constructed homes.
“It should have been built to the International Building Code and it should already have the detectors in there,” he said.
Griffith said the district had about $6,000 left to spend after buying the detectors last year, and will use the rest to buy more detectors and fire prevention materials.
He said the district offered a similar program in 2008 and received a call from a homeowner who received new smoke detectors, which helped his family during a fire.
“The smoke detector woke the family up and it saved them,” Griffith said. “It was exactly what we wanted to do – save lives.”
To see if you qualify, call 636-285-3345 or stop by one of the district’s stations – at 6766 Cedar Hill Road in Cedar Hill, 800 Hwy. 30 in Dittmer or 8790 Byrnesville Road in Byrnesville.
Griffith said the district covers 82 square miles in Cedar Hill, Dittmer, Byrnesville and Morse Mill.