Sean C. Morgan
Volunteers from the Red Cross and Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District installed 177 smoke detectors in local manufactured homes recently.
In November, they installed them in 65 homes in manufactured home parks, said Mike Severns, a paramedic-firefighter with SHFAD, and they’re looking at returning and installing detectors in more homes. The Linn County Red Cross installed its 10,000th detector during that day.
“I think a lot of them had them, but they weren’t working,” Severns said, noting that batteries were drained or removed or the detector was no longer functioning.
Detectors should be tested monthly by pushing the button on the detector and replaced every 10 years, according to the U.S. Fire Administration, a division of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Half of fire deaths happen between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. while most people are sleeping, according to the agency, and
A National Fire Protection Association study from 2013 indicated that some 51 percent of manufactured homes that had fires and tracked detector status did not have working detectors.
The USDA recommends installing smoke alarms in every bedroom, outside each sleeping area and on every level of a home, including the basement. It also recommends that they all sound when one sounds.
Some 30 volunteers from the Red Cross and a half dozen from SHFAD installed two to four new detectors in each home, Severns said.