As Fire Prevention Week approaches, the Peace River and County of Northern Lights Fire Departments urge residents to make sure their smoke alarms are working
September 26, 2024 – The Peace River and County of Northern Lights Fire Departments are teaming up with the National Fire Protection Association® (NFPA®) — the official sponsor of Fire Prevention Week (FPW) for more than 100 years — to promote this year’s FPW campaign, “Smoke alarms: Make them work for you!”
The campaign works to educate everyone about the importance of having working smoke alarms in the home.
According to NFPA, smoke alarms reduce the risk of dying in a home fire by more than half (54 percent). Meanwhile, roughly three out of five fire deaths happen in homes with either no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms.
“Smoke alarms serve as the first line of defense in a home fire, but they need to be working in order to protect people,” said Lorraine Carli, vice president of outreach and advocacy at NFPA. “This year’s Fire Prevention Week campaign helps better educate the public about simple but critical steps they can take to make sure their homes have smoke alarms in all the needed locations and that they’re working properly.”
The Peace River and County of Northern Lights Fire Departments encourage all residents to actively support the 2024 FPW theme, “Smoke alarms: Make them work for you!” “Working smoke alarms can make a life-saving difference in a home fire, giving people the time to get out safely,” said Tim Harris, Fire Chief. “This year’s Fire Prevention Week campaign is a great way to remind everyone about these messages and to act on them.”
The Peace River and County of Northern Lights Fire Departments offer these key smoke alarm safety tips and guidelines:
- Install smoke alarms in every bedroom, outside each separate sleeping area (like a hallway), and on each level (including the basement) of the home.
- Ideally, all alarms should be interconnected so that when one is activated by smoke they all go off to alert everyone in the home.
- Make sure smoke alarms meet the needs of all family members, including those with sensory or physical disabilities.
- Test smoke alarms at least once a month by pushing the test button.
- Replace all smoke alarms when they are 10 years old.
Peace River Fire Department has seen a large increase in the number of calls so far this year at 542 to date (Sep 25) compared with 279 at this time last year, almost double the number of calls.
Calls include:
- Alarm Calls – 139
- Structure Fires – 18
- Exterior Fires (wildland fires and others) – 49
- Vehicle Fires – 12
- Hazmat Responses – 27
- Medical Responses – 211
- Motor Vehicle Collisions – 58
- Technical Rescues – 14
- Miscellaneous - 13
“We’ve seen a great increase in the number of Medical responses compared with last year, as well as an increase in responses to Fire Alarms, Vehicle Fires and Hazmat responses,” said Chief Harris. “We have also had three major structure fires in the Town this year which unfortunately resulted in the loss of five residences and damage to two others," he added.
Included in the call numbers are mutual aid responses for wildland fires, structure fires and motor vehicle collisions to the County of Northern Lights, MD 135, and Northern Sunrise County. Firefighters assisted with a large wildfire in the MD of Peace in April and also provided structural protection to residences in the Keg River area which included setting up sprinkler systems on houses to provide protection from a nearby wildfire.
Chief Harris also said “The increase in calls for fire alarms is partly due to the increasing number of monitored residential smoke alarms being installed, and I would like to remind residents to keep their contact information up to date with their monitoring companies so that false alarms from cooking or showers etc. can be cancelled before a response is required”.
Call volume for the County of Northern Lights Departments has also increased over last year with 72 calls to date compared with 53 at this time last year.
Calls include:
- Alarm Calls – 6
- Structure Fires – 15
- Exterior Fires (wildland fires and others) – 12
- Vehicle Fires – 5
- Hazmat Responses – 3
- Medical Responses – 14
- Motor Vehicle Collisions – 12
- Technical Rescues – 2
- Miscellaneous - 2
As for Peace River, there has been an increase in medical responses and fire alarms but also motor vehicle collisions, while there has been a decrease in wildland fires over last year’s unprecedented season. Calls include responses to the surrounding region including Peace River, MD of Peace 135, and Northern Sunrise County. County Firefighters also responded to the MD 135 wildfire as well as assisting with structural protection in the Keg River area.
The Peace River and County of Northern Lights Fire Departments have 39 members in total, located at two halls in Peace River and two in the County of Northern Lights in Weberville and Dixonville. “We are always looking for new recruits to assist the departments in serving the community’s needs” added Chief Harris, “anyone interested in applying or looking for more information can contact the Fire Department at 780-624-2993”. Whilst the minimum age to respond to incidents is 18 years, the Departments also operate a Junior Firefighter program for youth aged 16 to 17 years.
To promote Fire Safety at this time of year, The Peace River Fire Department and the County of Northern Lights Fire Services will also be holding an Open House at Fire Hall #1 in downtown Peace River (10018 100 Ave) on October 12th from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm.
The event will include a Pancake Breakfast, Truck and Equipment Displays, Fire Extinguisher practice, a Vehicle Extrication Demonstration, Grease Fire Demonstration, an Interactive Hazard House and Sparky the Fire Dog as well as Fire Safety information.
For more information about Fire Prevention programs and activities in Peace River and the County of Northern Lights, visit our websites at; www.peaceriver.ca or www.countyofnorthernlights.com or on Facebook at; facebook.com/peaceriverab or facebook.com/countyofnorthernlights. For more general information about Fire Prevention Week and smoke alarms, visit www.fpw.org. For fire safety fun for kids, visit sparky.org.
