The first day of the month of May has arrived. While May 1 has many different intentions for people, it is the day we ask you to simply test your smoke and CO alarms to ensure they are working. Push the test button on the face of each alarm. You should hear an audible beeping sound. This indicates your alarm is good until next months test. If there is no audible warning, provide fresh batteries, or consider replacing your alarm with a new 10-year, tamper proof, with hush feature smoke and/or CO Alarm.
This month we are including a message from Marc S. Bashoor, Fire Chief, Prince George's County.
This month we are including a message from Marc S. Bashoor, Fire Chief, Prince George's County.
In the past year there have been significant
enhancements in both the State and County Fire codes, which will soon mean new
things for Prince George's County residents.
Effective July 1, 2014 Carbon Monoxide
detectors will become a new requirement for Prince George's County residents
who have gas service or attached garages.
In the past 3 years at least 6 residents of the
Prince George's County have lost their lives to carbon monoxide poisoning.
This legislation gives our residents 1 more chance to get out of their
homes alive in times of danger.
The other important legislative effort on the
horizon will require smoke alarms with sealed 10-year lithium batteries.
This law takes full effect in January 1, 2015 for 1 nd 2 family residential
homes. These units will provide a significant enhancement in alarm
reliability that will undoubtedly save lives.
Our Safety First Day of the month program meets
public information tips and firefighters with County residents in an electronic
and door-to-door foot campaign. We provide fire safety tips and check for
working smoke alarms. That efforts combined with our
Neighbors-Helping-Neighbors program have shown dramatic results in our residents’
safety. We recognize as a fire service, we cannot do this alone. At
every community event, homeowners association meeting, and at any other event
we can - including today, we ask out residents to check their own smoke alarm,
and then go next door and check their neighbors and those less able to help
themselves.
The Safety First Day of the month and Neighbors
Helping Neighbors programs are being credited today with lowering our residents
fire deaths to record lows, with only 1 fire death recorded so far this year in
Prince George's County. A total of 13
were recorded in 2013.
Those results are indeed dramatic, and as
demonstrated by 11 recent smoke-alarm-saves, I submit to you today that 11
families are alive and well because their working smoke alarm gave them time to
get out of their homes before fire took hold. Several of these saves were
installed by our firefighters as part of the Safety First program.
We depend on donations to fund these efforts,
including recent donations of 83 alarms by the PGCVFRA Ladies Auxiliary for the
Christmas in April program, 150 alarms by the IAFF, and annual donations from
our corporate partner, PEPCO. PEPCO alone has contributed over 10,000
alarms to the PGFD since they began partnering with the Fire Service.
I want to thank KIDDE, the manufacturer of many
home safety products, for continuing to partner with us and the National Fallen
Firefighters Foundation. Today, KIDDE is donating 50 combination smoke
and carbon monoxide alarms to our Safety First program.
We will be going door-to-door on Wednesday, May 7
and I want to remind our residents that fire is everyone's problem.
Together we will continue to drive down fire fatalities and improve our communities’
safety.
Marc S. Bashoor, Fire Chief, Prince George's County, MD
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