Area officials work to promote fire prevention

Carrie J. Sidener / Lynchburg News & Advance
Published: January 11, 2008

The first two months of 2007 were tough on Lynchburg-area firefighters.

Four people died in house fires, and more than 60 were burned out of their homes.

Fire officials hope this winter isn't a repeat of last year.

Many have redoubled their efforts at fire prevention, and hope residents heed their advice.

The key to survival is early warning, they say. That's why smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors are essential.

"Not having a working smoke detector - that is a huge contributing factor in fatal fires because there is no early warning," said Greg Wormser, Lynchburg's fire marshal.

Fire officials don't know if there were functioning smoke detectors in the house that burned in February on Pecks Road in Huddleston, killing Sharon Ayers, 29, and her two daughters, Ashley, 11, and Jennifer, 4.

"So many fatal fires are a result of people not having smoke detectors," said Gary Roakes, Amherst County's public safety director.

Lynchburg Fire and Rescue installs more than 500 smoke detectors for free in houses each year. This year, it also received a grant from Be Fire Safe VA to install 215 carbon monoxide detectors.

Wormser installed 100 so far. He's received more requests for the devices than he has detectors to install.

Wormser installed one recently in Jerome Dillard's house. He lives alone since his wife died. He said she was always concerned about the gas coming into their home, so he called when he heard about the detector program.

Carbon monoxide is almost always what kills in a house fire, said Jack Jones, Bedford County's chief of Fire and Rescue Services.

"People in most fires that are burnt up are dead before that," Jones said. "It's from carbon monoxide. If you are in your home and you are feeling lethargic, it may not just be that cold or flu going around."

But the poisoning can happen without a fire, for people who have gas-burning devices in their home, he said.

Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless and tasteless gas, Wormser said. It binds to the blood and prevents it from carrying oxygen throughout the body. Symptoms include headaches, flushed skin, nausea and blurred vision. If the victim is asleep, the symptoms are not significant enough to wake them. That's when most people succumb to carbon monoxide poisoning.

"You go to sleep and you don't wake up," Wormser said.

Both house fires and carbon monoxide poisoning are more common in the winter, when people are shut up in their houses and using heat sources, Wormser said.

Particularly when fuel prices are high, people resort to alternative means to heat their home and that increases the fire risk.

When Jones goes to a house fire only to find that the smoke detectors are not working, he feels defeated.

"I'm not naive enough to think we are going to prevent everything," he said. "But here you can get them free and have a fireman come out and install it for you. You can get a smoke detector and a carbon monoxide detector for the price of a phone call in this community."

Jones said firefighters have found ancient smoke detectors, ones without batteries or with dead batteries, and houses missing smoke detectors

completely.

"Every house should have working smoke detectors, preferably in every bedroom," said Ronnie Lawson, fire marshal for Campbell County.

"If your alarm goes off, leave the house and call 911 - whether it's the smoke detector or the carbon monoxide

detector."