Residents of Perryville in need of a smoke detectors can now benefit from a grant the Perryville Fire Department has received through the Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center.

“We have a limited number of smoke detectors that are available through this grant,” said Perryville Fire Chief Anthony Young. Currently, the department has around 60, but there’s a potential to receive more.

The idea is to get them in homes that don’t already have working smoke detectors, he said. 

Young said he was inspired by the Danville Fire Department, which has received the grant for a few years.

“Perryville is a much smaller city, but the dangers are the same,” Young said. “There are houses in Perryville and all over Boyle County that don’t have smoke detectors.”

That’s troubling, he said, because fatalities are higher in fires at homes without smoke detectors. 

According to the National Fire Protection Association, three of every five home fire deaths resulted from fires in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms. That’s 38 percent of the time in homes without smoke detectors and 21 percent of the time in homes with non working smoke detectors.

There are a variety of reasons why people don’t have smoke detectors. A lot of people, Young said, don’t think it can happen to them; sometimes people can’t afford the detectors; and sometimes people just forget to replace the batteries.

“It’s a huge safety factor,” Young said.

Having a smoke detector can save a life, he said. It can also enable someone to call for the fire department faster, and enable the firefighters to put out the flames more quickly.

“If it’s caught earlier, there’s less damage. We can get it contained,” he said.

As part of the grant, the Perryville Firefighters will install the smoke detectors in homes, free of charge. They also get to deliver fire safety literature to those getting the alarms.

“This gives us an opportunity to target a broader audience and get a lot of important fire safety information out there,” he said.

To learn more about the alarms, call the Perryville City Hall at (859) 332-8361, or contact the Perryville City Fire Department at perryvillefire@bellsouth.net or on Facebook.