The Crossville Fire Department honored for their efforts protecting residents during the ‘Get Alarmed, Tennessee,’ fire safety event.
Crossville Fire Chief Chris South said the initiative focused on Crossville’s Gardens community following a recent fire involving an RV inside a duplex garage. South said the department partnered with the State Fire Marshal’s Office to canvas the retirement village and ensure every residence had functional smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.
“The potential was so great for a loss of life there,” South said. “The actual owners of the residence were not alarmed early enough. They were fortunate enough to escape and get the neighbors out of the building adjacent to it. But we felt that we needed to try to improve upon the early notification of and obviously that’s always been a desire for fire departments across the state is to make sure that you get an early notification if a fire were to start in your residence, so it gives you ample time to be able to escape safely.”
South said the department also replaced batteries in numerous existing units and identified detectors that had exceeded their 10-year manufacturer service date.
“It was a very lengthy day, but it was a great day of our personnel being able to be in the community, serve the community, make relationships with the community,” South said. “I think that’s always a positive thing for emergency services for us to get to, you know, they get to put a face with the people who are coming to now help them.”
South said the unique layout of the RV retirement village required installing detectors in garages, a practice the department typically avoids to prevent nuisance alarms. South said having firefighters physically present in the homes allowed them to gain a better understanding of the residential layouts in case of a future emergency.
“The average house now in today’s society, you have right at or less than two minutes to safely escape your residence from the time that the fire starts, not from when you realize there’s a fire, but from when the fire actually starts,” South said. “That’s how quickly residences burn today.”
South said residents should install smoke detectors inside every bedroom, in the hallways outside of sleeping areas, and on every floor of the home. South said the department encourages families to practice home fire drills because smoke can cause a person to fall into a deeper sleep or become comatose before they realize there is a danger.
“I think we’ve got to try our best to make sure that every resident is protected and that’s what we’ve vowed in the city of Crossville is to try to make sure that every actually, I tell all of our residents if you don’t have a smoke detector call the fire station we’ll get you one,” South said. “You know, we’ll make sure that you’re covered and people do, so I think it’s a we’ve had good success here on the mountain, but again I don’t think the work can ever stop, I think it’s got to be continuing.”
South said if an alarm sounds, residents should stay low to crawl under smoke and immediately exit through a primary or secondary escape route. Just as students and faculty practice fire drills at school, South said families should establish a plan with a designated meeting spot outside and call 911 as soon as they are safe.
“We want our citizens and our communities to know that their fire departments want to take care of them and protect them and we’re just fortunate to be able to do so,” South said.
