Every year in the United States, about 3,000 people lose their lives in residential fires, mainly due to smoke inhalation, and we at the Montgomery County Fire/EMS want every person in our community to have properly maintained and operating smoke detectors. About two-thirds of home fire deaths occur in homes with absent or non-working smoke alarms. For these reasons, the Montgomery County Fire/EMS recommends that our citizens follow the recommendation of the National Fire Alarm Code and install a minimum of one smoke alarm on each level of a home, including one inside each bedroom for new construction and one detector alarm of each sleeping area.
The smoke detector program was developed to insure that all citizens of Montgomery County had access to proper smoke detection equipment. We especially focus our efforts on families with young children, senior citizens, disabled persons, and other residents that may be on a fixed income but otherwise unable to afford a smoke detector.
Smoke detectors will be installed free of charge for those in need, and we recommend that if you already have smoke detectors, they are inspected and cleaned once a month, and the batteries changed every 6 months. It is also recommend that detectors over 10 years old be discarded and replaced with new ones.
For further information on our smoke detector program, click the following link to find our online application [ link to application], or give us a call at (859) 498-1318.