Smoke alarms help save Wasilla family

WASILLA — A fire in Wasilla this past week is a textbook example of why it is important to have working smoke detectors, the Central Mat-Su Fire Department reports.

Firefighters were sent at 2:39 a.m. Tuesday to the fire on a street near Mile 13 Knik-Goose Bay Road. The blaze started in a truck parked two feet from a 24-foot-by-70-foot mobile home, said Tara Mellon, fire service area assistant with Central.

Smoke detectors went off, waking the two people inside, the homeowner and his daughter.

“The owner stated that there was smoke in the hallway and that the front of the mobile home and the main exit had fire blocking their egress,” Mellon said.

The man and his daughter were able to get out through the back door.

“Had they not had smoke alarms, at the time of night that it was, 2 o’clock in the morning, there’s no telling what could have happened,” Mellon said. The cause of the fire is still unknown. Between the truck and the home, damage is estimated at $20,000.

Anyone who needs smoke detectors may call the department and set up an appointment, Mellon said. The department bought 200 detectors in 2006 with a grant from Wal-Mart. Last year, the department put up 26 and there’s still plenty to go around. The department doesn’t hand out the detectors to people who come in asking for them, but trained personnel also don’t charge for the detectors or installation when they go to put them up.

Central Mat-Su Fire Department installs a lot of detectors when called out to homes and all Central trucks have an install kit, she said. Central makes an effort, whenever possible, to inform the public about the free installation program, but it’s not always easy.

“The people that we need to hit most don’t get the information,” she said.

Central Mat-Su advises homeowners seeking to install their own detectors to have an alarm in every bedroom, in the hallway connecting them and in every living space, like dining rooms and family rooms. The bare minimum, according to a fire department press release, should be one alarm for every floor, including the attic and crawl space.

“If a family is really in need we can outfit the whole house,” Mellon said.