A spokesman for the State Fire Marshal’s office says they are making progress in getting smoke detectors in every home. The Fire Marshal has provided over 20,000 smoke detectors to local fire departments since 2010 to be installed in homes. Special Agent, Dan Wood, says they’re keeping track of the number of lives saved. “What we’ve asked all fire departments in the state to do is, if you have a fire and people heard a detector going off and they get out, if it’s a family of two that’s two lives saved by a smoke detector,” Wood says.
The saves by the devices hit triple digits last year. Wood says, “In 2013 we had 112 saved by smoke detectors.” The numbers show smoke detectors have helped save over 600 lives across Iowa in the last four years. “I feel like we’re making a dent, we are helping the people of the state of Iowa,” Wood says. “We’ll keep going as long as we can with this project — and hopefully we’ll do get to that goal of everybody having smoke detectors in the state.”
Five people died in an Arlington home without smoke detectors during a fire in January. Burlington, Waterloo and Bondurant all had deadly house fires last year in which there was no working smoke detector.