Smoke Alarm Saturation Effort in Old Town Bowie

MEDIA CONTACT: Mark E. Brady, Chief Spokesperson, 240-508-7930

mebrady@co.pg.md.us @PGFDPIO

A working smoke alarm increases the chances of surviving a fire in your home by about 50%. 10-year, tamper proof, with a hush feature smoke alarms should be installed on every level of your home just outside of sleeping areas and one in every bedroom. Having a 10-year smoke alarm means you will never have to change a battery again.

10-year alarms will reduce the number of fatalities that occur in homes found with no smoke alarms or alarms found with a lack of or dead batteries. 66% of fire fatalities occur in homes with a non-working smoke alarm or no smoke alarm at all.

Each home should also have a pre-designed and practiced escape plan which identifies 2 ways out of every room and a safe meeting place outside. Once out of a burning house, stay out!!!

Today, Saturday, October 24, firefighters and officials from the City of Bowie will be going door-to-door checking smoke alarms. Personnel will ask residents if they can check their smoke alarm to see if it working. If there is no smoke alarm present or if we find a smoke alarm that is not working and appears to be 10-years of age or older a new 10-year smoke alarm will be installed at no cost. This community risk reduction effort is made possible by a generous donation of new smoke alarms by Lowes of Bowie and lunch provided to firefighters and city officials by TJ Elliot’s.

Firefighters also reviewed escape drills and provided ideas on 2 ways out of every room and a safe meeting place outside.

Firefighters were able to track the homes they visited and what action was taken at a specific address in an app on their phones. The collector app, developed by County IT staff, allows firefighters to record the address they visited and note no answer, alarms already work or installed 10-year alarm, etc.

Saturday's Agenda included:

Meeting at Bowie Fire Department Station 819

13008 9^th Street, Bowie at 10:00 am

Teams will visit as many as 88 homes in all in the following areas:

Maple Ave, from 9^th street to 6^th Street

Old Laurel Bowie Rd, from 9^th Street to 5^th Street (east side)

6^th Street from Maple Ave to Old Laurel Bowie Rd

7^th Street from Maple Ave to Old Laurel Bowie Rd

8^th Street from Maple Ave to Old Laurel Bowie Rd

Chapel Ave from 8^th Street to 9^th Street.

Sunday, November 1, is the Safety First Day of the month and is also the day we adjust our clocks back 1 hour for Daylight Saving Time. It is also the time we remind everyone that when we change our clocks to change the batteries in your smoke and CO alarms as well. Better yet. If you still have 9-volt battery powered smoke alarm or your current alarm is 10-years old than consider changing to the 10-year smoke alarms. Never change a battery again but remember to continue to test all alarms once a month on the Safety First Day of each month.

Bowie City Manager David J. Deutsch greets firefighters and provides encouragement with Fire Chief Marc Bashoor looking on.

Firefighter Chris Moore is assigned to the office of the Fire Chief and ensures field readiness for the
Adopt a Neighborhood program.

Larry Schultz, City of Bowie Emergency Management Resources Coordinator and volunteer member at Bowie VFD provided a coordinated and well organized smoke alarm saturation program