Fire prevention officials were in East Ridge this week.
It's to make sure everyone gets through the Christmas tree season safely.
Claire Marsalis is the Community Risk Reduction Coordinator for the state Fire Marshal's office. She explained, "The state Fire Marshal's office got a federal grant to purchase 20,000 smoke alarms to distribute in areas of Tennessee at highest risk for fire deaths, because Tennessee until recently has been number two in the nation for residential fire deaths."
Although Tennessee just improved by four spots, officials want to get the Volunteer state to the bottom of that list. With these new 10 year lithium-battery powered smoke alarms. Marsalis added, "We may not be able to get into some of these high-risk homes again so we want to put up protection that's going to last the longest."
So our local fire departments took part in this smoke alarm training session.
Charlie Lewis is the East Tennessee Regional Coordinator for Codes Enforcement. He said, "This is a new technology, the smoke detector's they're using. So it's very important, the location of where they're going to be and to make sure they are working properly when they are installed."
The fire officials can then take the knowledge they learn in this classroom and train others... Including volunteers from churches and other civic organizations. Lewis added, "This is very important that we do get involved with the fire service. That's what's going to make the program work. We're trying everything we can do to lower the fire deaths that we're having. For our citizens and our communities now."
The officials who complete the training get a copy of the class materials, a supply of smoke alarms and brochures to give the residents who receive the new high-tech alarms.
