Albany Fire Dept. to give out and install smoke detectors as part of American Red Cross’ ‘Sound the Alarm’ initiative

ALBANY, Ga. –  November is Fire Safety Month, and one group is partnering with the Albany Fire Department to keep people prepared.

CBS 44’s Brian Roche has the details on what the fire department is doing to help this weekend.

As part of the American Red Cross’ ‘Sound the Alarm Initiative,’ the Albany Fire Department will be giving out and installing dozens of smoke alarms across the county Saturday.

Assistant Chief and Head of Fire Prevention, Marcus Glass says that Saturday morning, the fire department with the help of the Red Cross are going to be giving out more than 70 smoke alarms across Dougherty county.

Glass says the Red Cross has helped them earmark the homes that need working alarms the most.

“They do the pre-work of going into homes, and identifying the places we’re going to go. And, as a fire department we’ll go in and install those. So it’s like a smoke alarm blitz. Where we’re making sure that everyone has working smoke alarms in their homes,” said Assistant Fire Chief Marcus Glass, Albany Fire Department.

The need to remind people to check their smoke alarms is certainly important in Dougherty county…

As earlier in the week, a 74-year-old man died in a house fire from what’s believed to be smoke inhalation.

This is prompting glass to remind the county that it’s important to keep up to date on smoke alarms working.

“We want to make sure that the community of the City of Albany and Dougherty county, know that, as a fire department, and our partnership with the red cross, that we care about their safety. We care about them being alerted as soon as possible…” said Glass.

And, in Dougherty county’s case, the need for working smoke alarms in homes is absolutely there.

“One of the things we have noticed statistically, is that out of the 23 counties that the Red Cross serves, Dougherty county is the one that has the most house fires. So, it’s paramount that we get in there and install these smoke alarms,” said Glass.

And, as the temperatures start to drop off, having working smoke alarms in these homes might be a life-saving difference.

“Right at this time here, I think we are really getting ahead of this winter, and making sure that people have working smoke alarms, and that they know the dangers of using those electrical heaters,” said Glass.

Chief Glass says that following the recent fire, getting working smoke alarms in homes is just as high a priority as ever.

The Red Cross is planning to give out more than 1,300 smoke alarms across the state by November 11th.

Brian Roche reporting.

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