Oskaloosa Fire Department Starts Installing Smoke Detectors

Oskaloosa Firefighter Mark Tennison is seen with one of the first one hundred smoke alarms that will be installed locally

Oskaloosa, Iowa- In January, slips were sent home with Oskaloosa Elementary students from the State Fire Marshals office. The program is called the 100 Years. 100% of the campaign’s goal is the installation of at least two working smoke detectors in the homes of Iowa school children in grades kindergarten through 6th-grade by the end of this year.

The Oskaloosa Fire Department got in the first 100, of an expected 300, smoke detectors for this program.Oskaloosa Fire Fighter Mark Tennison is helping to coordinate the effort locally.

“We’re going to start calling them [homeowners] and setting up appointments,” Tennison said in starting to coordinate the installation. Tennison says they will be concentrating on certain sections of town in order to help make best use of the firefighters time and efforts in installing into, a planned, five homes a day.

“Every agency we work with is emotionally affected by a young life cut short because of fire,” said State Fire Marshal Ray Reynolds. “We know this is preventable and we won’t stop our efforts until children stop dying in fires in our state.”

According to the National Fire Protection Association, nearly 3,000 Americans die each year in house fires. In Iowa, 185 deaths associated with fire were reported from 2006 to 2010. Of these deaths, 31 involved children under the age of 18. According to IOSME and the Iowa Child Death Review Team, in just over half of these deaths (18), it was determined that the children’s homes had no or an inoperable smoke alarm. These sudden and tragic child deaths could have been prevented if only a working smoke detector was present in these homes to alert occupants of the presence of a fire.