Residents in Huntsville and Lake of Bays can expect a friendly knock from their local fire department in the coming months.
“We’re going to have crews of firefighters going door-to-door, they’ll just be handing out information,” says Huntsville Lake of Bays Fire Chief Rob Collins. “They will also be available, if the homeowner wants to have someone come in and inspect their home, and make sure their alarms are working or that they’re in the proper place and they’re properly maintained.”
The education program will cover smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors, as well as fire escape planning. Collins says the program is meant to remind people that a lack of preparedness can have deadly consequences.
“Over the last couple of years, there has been an uptick in the number of fires and the number of fire fatalities,” says Collins. “What they’ve found in investigating these fires was in most of the cases where there were fatalities, there were a lack of working smoke alarms, so there’s a direct correlation there.”
Collins stresses that this is not an enforcement campaign and that tickets will not be issued to homeowners.
“This program has nothing to do with handing out tickets or enforcement, this is all about information,” says Collins. “We just want to be out there helping people to make sure their homes are properly equipped.”
To that end, Collins says crews will provide and install alarms free of charge to elderly residents, those with limited mobility, or those who cannot afford them. “We won’t see a home lacking protection because of financial constraints,” he says.
Firefighters will be making the rounds from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on select days until the end of October.