By Richard Ilgenfritz
Main Line Times & Suburban
LOWER MERION, Pa. — Following a devastating fire in Ardmore that killed two residents in late August, a group of local firefighters, with the help of a civic organization and the township, spent time ensuring people in the community they serve have working smoke detectors.
On a Tuesday night, a few teams of firefighters took time to go to the homes of residents who signed up to check their smoke detectors and install new ones if necessary.
Tom Hayden, fire chief at the Merion Fire Company of Ardmore, said they wanted to come up with a way to help people in the Ardmore community ensure that they had working smoke detectors. So, the plan was to have residents contact the fire company and then have the firefighters go out and check their homes.
So, on a recent Tuesday night, firefighters went around to homes and installed smoke detectors throughout the community.
The ‘real’ job of a firefighter or EMS provider
But before they did the inspections, the idea made its way to the Ardmore Rotary Club, where Hayden is the co-president.
According to Hayden, the Ardmore Rotary Club has an emergency fund for the fire company. They dipped into the fund to make flyers to get the word out to the community. Money from the fund was also used to purchase smoke detectors.
Hayden said Lower Merion Township also provided some of the smoke detectors.
The key to the program was for the fire company to reach out to the community so that residents could sign up to have their homes checked. The flyers listed a phone number for residents to contact the fire company and get their names and addresses on a list. Some of the churches also put the information out to their members. Firefighters also attended a block party, all in an effort to spread the word about getting their smoke alarms checked.
About 20 of the Ardmore Firefighters then went to the houses of those who signed up to have smoke detectors checked and installed if needed.
The efforts to give out the alarms were also discussed during a recent Lower Merion Township Commissioners budget workshop meeting.
During the meeting, Chief Fire Officer James McCoy said this was the first time two people perished in one fire.
“We talked about that the night of the event. Not only was the family hurting, but the firefighters were hurting, too. That’s the first time in my 40 years that we’ve had two line-of-duty fatalities in the same property,” McCoy said.
Lower Merion Commissioner Anthony Stevenson said he went out with a couple of groups of firefighters as they checked and installed the alarms.
“What happened last night was a testimony of the dedication of our fire companies and what they represent,” Stevenson said.
According to a press release from the township following the fire, it occurred on Aug. 28, at 9:15 p.m., when fire crews were called to a reported house fire at 200 block of Greenfield Avenue in Ardmore .
Lower Merion Police Department and Merion Fire Company of Ardmore arrived within a few minutes of the call, confirming heavy smoke and fire on the second floor, with two persons reportedly still inside the home. Additional resources from all seven of the township’s fire companies and EMS services from Narberth Ambulance were also called. The smoke detectors were not functional, township officials said.
Commissioner Dan Bernheim said two people perished in the fire.
“While our hearts go out to their families, it also had to be difficult for the firefighters who were engaged — there was nothing they could have done to prevent that, and so what they did as a reaction is they went out to the community to give out the fire alarms so that somebody else isn’t going to go through that and as commissioner Stevenson just said this speaks so highly of the individuals who step forth both the career folks and the volunteers in our fire service,” Bernheim said.
According to Hayden, anyone still in need of a smoke detector can call 610-645-6190.
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