JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Anyone who owns a single-family home or two-family home in Duval County is eligible for a free smoke detector program courtesy of Mayor Lenny Curry’s office.
All you have to do is call 630-CITY, and the fire department will bring either a new smoke detector or a new set of batteries to you can set you up for fire safety, Chief Keith Powers told The Morning Show on Thursday.
“It is very important that the smoke detector gets put in the right place in the home,” Powers said. “It needs to be between the regular part of the living area of the house and the bedroom. So it needs to be near your bedroom in case that fire happens while you’re asleep in the middle of the night.”
Powers explained that the renters and tenants have a different process.
“State statute requires that your landlord provide you a smoke detector. And if you live in a multi-level dwelling, then it is required to have one on each floor, so if you are a renter, and you need a smoke detector, you need to get in touch with your landlord and make sure that they are providing that for you,” Powers said.
Powers said smoke detectors save lives.
“You are already asleep and then when you have the fire burning, that starts eating up oxygen in the room -- you get overcome by the smoke, and you really never wake up,” Powers warned. “A lot of people that we go to are in bed, and they never realize what happens to them just because they don’t have that early warning device.”
Firefighters also encourage you to have a plan and once you go outside DO NOT go back in the house to rescue a pet or a person.
“Let us do that. We have equipment that can protect us,” Powers said. “But you need to have a plan before it happens because we all know ... we don’t play well under pressure, and when that pressure hits us, you need to already have in your mind, you need to already have worked out with every one of your children, every one of your parents, every one of your grandparents, ‘This is how we are going to get out and this is where we are going to meet outside,’ so that we (firefighters) can know, is everybody here or do we need to go inside and make a rescue?”
For a free smoke detector or battery change call 904-630-CITY (2489).
You can also visit COJ.net to get more information about the Mayor’s Home Fire Safety Program.