Mississippi State Fire Marshal Mike Chaney issued the following statement.
The Mississippi State Fire Marshal’s Office (SFMO) has purchased nearly 45,000 smoke alarms using about $500,000 in grant money through the Fire Prevention and Safety Grant provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).The alarms will be distributed to fire departments around the state in the coming months. Each department will be responsible for distributing and installing them in their communities.
Smoke alarms drastically improve your chances of surviving a fire.
“Smoke alarms should be tested at least once a month using the test button,” said State Fire Marshal and Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney. “Make sure everyone in the home understands the sound of the smoke alarm and knows how to respond. Replace all smoke alarms when they are 10 years old and replace the smoke alarm immediately if it doesn’t respond properly when tested.”
Smoke alarms should be placed in every sleeping area, in common hallways, and on every level of the home. Large homes may need extra smoke alarms. They should be placed on the ceiling or high on a wall.
At last check, there have been 35 fire deaths statewide in 2023. There were 71 total fire deaths in Mississippi in 2022.
If you need a smoke alarm, call your local fire department.
23 comments:
They do know they sell these at Wal Mart right??
The title is misleading. Need to rephrase: The taxpayers bought 45,000 smoke alarms. The insurance commissioner will merely distribute them. This is a worthy cause, but it is misleading.
Free money from FEMA = bribing the taxpayers with their own money, and/or funded with borrowed money contributing to the deficit. Thanks a lot.
Well, if you need a new smoke alarm, head on down to your local pawn shop. They will soon be fully stocked.
Could be the insurance companies providing the funds but if not I had rather see my tax dollars spent this way than pissed away on some social experiment. Smoke detectors save lives and I wish schools would educate small children about house fires and have them come up with a plan on how to get out of a house if they hear the alarm. A lot of kids don't get much training at home on anything. Great program no matter who is paying the bill.
As like a Volunteer Fire Department needs something else to do!
Only problem is that when the smoke alarm batteries go out the recipients of the smoke alarms will not replace the batteries.
When the batteries die the entitled recipients will demand FREE batteries.
@3:45
Was looking for this comment LOL
@3:25 - I agree.
Yes,this is taxpayers bought these. Yes, they could be bought by responsible citizens at Wallyworld or from Bezos online.
But, many people don't buy them.
Cheney has promoted giving these away at every opportunity he has found over his term in office - county fairs, VFD, whatever. And, even with many solid, good, responsible invidividuals, this is what makes them realize that they should take these detectors and install them. I can attest - Cheney handed me a few at an event and I installed them.
Yes, I could have, and should have, bought some earlier and installed them. But - its one of those things that you have to remember to do, unless you purchase a new home that had them installed prior to your moving in.
Should it take taxpayer dollars to do this? Absolutely not. But, what better spending of taxpayer dollars than on issues of public safety (to the residents of the house where the detectors are installed, and to the surrounding area). National defense, public safety, infrastructure ---- hmmm. Don't know where to go next with expenditure of tax dollars, but I'll leave these detectors on the list.
Might some people take them and try to pawn them? I don't think so - they aren't worth enough for a pawn shop to get involved. But thank you anyway 2:52. But even if you were correct - if the giving away of detectors that actually get installed in the responsible receipents houses, and one or two save a family's lives - I'll take it.
Quit spending my tax money on non-taxpayers' stuff.
@3:45 PM
I worked in the Obama phone call center for a few years.
They always had that smoke alarm chirping going on.
I literally couldn’t stand to have that crap chirping for the time I had them on the phone.
Can’t imagine how they just lived with it.
I hate the shrieking mayhem when these things are triggered for a non emergency event, especially at night in a 10 foot ceiling home! I just wanna swing a Maddock and destroy the alarm, a bit of ceiling and the wiring, all on my way back to bed.
Smoke alarms are too cheap and easily triggered, IMO.
"Nah."
More political smoke blowing.
Elections are coming up. Look at me, look at me!
Election season is when cynical self-serving career politicians announce all of the free shit that is available to the unwashed masses with the intent of pandering for their votes.
The free shit is another form of redistribution of wealth. Marx is smiling.
That's not enough. I also need CO and water leak detectors, and a security system. If the government is going to protect me, then they need to do more, more, more...
Glad to know my tax money is boing spent on items to be resold to provide money for contraband.
Nanny state, Mississippi version.
@9:33 - where exactly would someone go to sell a used smoke alarm?
Walmart has smoke alarms for under $6 so 45,000 at that price would be $270,000. Who did they purchase these from and who is the owner of that company donating to politically?
5:36 I too am fascinated by this and wish some bored sociologist would study the correlation between poverty/crime and one's tolerance to live for YEARS with a chirping battery.
It seems so common on shows like The First 48 etc, for police officers to be working a murder and every single home they enter has a chirping smoke detector.
I guess the kind of person that just allows them to beep endlessly is also the kind of person that finds themselves on an episode of Dateline.
Post a Comment