Firefighters offer free detectors

The Daily Inter Lake

If your home is one of almost half of those nationwide without a working smoke alarm or if it still needs a carbon monoxide detector - and if you live in the Ferndale Fire District - firefighters have a deal for you.

The Ferndale Fire Department will install smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms free in all homes in the fire district.

And, thanks to a donation from Lowe's, the alarms are free as well.

Ferndale firefighters will bring all materials and equipment to install the alarms.

They are kicking off the campaign with a public open house from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Jan. 17 at the fire station.

Firefighters will be available to answer home safety questions, disseminate fire safety information and install alarms.

Refreshments will be served.

To learn more about the open house or schedule an appointment to have your home's alarms installed, contact Chief Marvin Eaves at 837-6900 or e-mail info@ferndalefire.com.

Visit www.ferndalefire.com for more information.

Almost all households in the United States have at least one smoke alarm, the department said in a press release, yet no smoke alarms were present or none was in working order in 46 percent of the reported home fires from 2000 to 2004.

The death rate per 100 reported fires was twice as high in homes without a working smoke alarm as it was in home fires with this protection.

If all homes had working smoke alarms, the department said, an estimated 890 lives could be saved annually.

That's just under a third of the annual fire death toll.

Carbon monoxide alarms also are promising life-savers.

Often called the silent killer, carbon monoxide is an invisible, odorless, colorless gas created when fuels such as gasoline, wood, coal, natural gas, propane, oil and methane burn incompletely.

Inside the home, heating and cooking equipment that burn fuel are potential sources of carbon monoxide.

The fire department reported approximately 15,200 people were treated annually from 2001 to 2003 and an estimated 480 people die annually from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Ian Hineman, a Creston 17-year-old, died accidentally from carbon monoxide fumes in December.