Firefighters Pushing Fire Safety In Wake Of Recent Events
By: Ashley Zilka
Updated: January 30, 2013
A house was badly damaged Wednesday morning on Ballad Avenue in Greece. The house was badly damaged by fire, but the family inside was able to escape. Firefighter Randy Jensen says they had what he calls a cheap insurance policy that saved their lives.
"Everybody is out of the house. Smoke detectors alerted them that there was a fire on the second floor. They all got out safely. It makes our job tremendously easy," Jensen said.
Experts say people reduce their risk of dying in a house fire in half if they have working smoke detectors. But these detectors also do more. They save the lives of firefighters.
"We get to another gear knowing that there is people inside the house," he said. "We seem to have lots of fires where people are still inside the home.
Last week in Chili, four family members were badly injured in this house fire. All the victims had to be rescued. Three firefighters suffered smoke inhalation.
"If you have early warning or early detection, it sure makes a difference and using the Chili situation, if they did have a working smoke detector, does that make a difference? I think it does," Jensen said.
Firefighters say smoke detectors should be on every level of the home, including all bedrooms. The batteries need to be changed twice a year. Local fire departments will also come out to your home and make sure all of them are working properly.


