Danbury won a $16,000 grant from FEMA to distribute more than 1,000 new smoke detectors to homes in the city.
Members of the city's Fire Marshal's office and firefighters will start knocking on doors Saturday, and ask residents if they want a free home fire safety inspection. During that inspection, if the house needs smoke detectors, the firefighters or fire marshals will install them. The new detectors include 10-year batteries.
Fire Chief Geoffrey Herald said the FEMA grant not only helps protect homeowners, it also protects firefighters. Herald said if people safely evacuate a burning home because they were warned by a smoke detector, then firefighters don't have to go inside to find anyone.
"It'a a very hazardous event," Herald said. The firefighters will also get a look at a number of houses they haven't seen before. That's called "pre-planning" a fire. In the event of a fire, they may remember where the garage is or where the back door is located or something else that would help.
Herald said F&M Electric on Federal Road won the bid to supply the smoke detectors, and the price was so low, it allowed the city to buy more detectors.
The first neighborhood firefighters will canvas is the Stevens Street, Elm Street area downtown. The goal is to eventually go citywide.
"The standard is one alarm per bedroom and one for each common area," said Deputy Fire Marshal Jordan Leach. That means larger houses could get four or more smoke detectors installed.
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