Arnold firefighters help make sure residents have smoke detectors

Nannette Banichar of Arnold is like a lot of people. She had no working smoke detectors in her home — that is, before Saturday.

Tessie Amaranto, executive director of the American Red Cross, Chestnut Ridge Chapter, said that’s the case more often than not.

The Red Cross teamed up with Arnold Fire Dept. No. 2 to install free smoke detectors in city homes on Saturday.

“Our Home Fire Campaign was started to help residents and communities be better prepared for fires,” Amaranto said.

“All too often we see fatalities or injuries due to individuals not having working smoke alarms. A lot of times (firefighters) go out to put out fires and there’s no working smoke alarms, because they should normally hear them when they get on scene.”

Amaranto said often when people burn toast, the smoke alarm goes off so they pull out the batteries and forget to replace them.

“We feel that one home made safer is a great thing,” she said. “Today, in this community, we’re fortunate to have 40 appointments. So 40 residents called our number and said ‘we want to have smoke alarms installed today.’”

One of those residents was Banichar, who said it was challenging for her to reach the height at which smoke alarms need to be installed.

Arnold Fire Department No. 2 Chief Eric Gartley and firefighter Jeff Bontempo were happy to help.

When they showed up at Banichar’s home on 17th Street shortly after noon Saturday, they could see that the house she inherited from her parents hadn’t had a working smoke alarm since her mother died last spring. The firemen immediately went to work installing four of them, on different levels of the house. It used to be a duplex, before her parents converted it to one house.

The first stop was just outside of the kitchen, in an area above the entrance where an old smoke detector was mounted.

“Our goal today is we want to make sure we leave with a smoke alarm installed on every level,” Gartley said. “So, one outside the bedroom, one on the first floor here in the living room.”

“We had a smoke detector here and you can see it’s old; and I don’t know how to replace it,” Banichar said of the area just outside the kitchen.

The firefighters replaced it with a new one with a 10-year battery.

“That’s good,” Banichar said. “So, I don’t have to worry about it when the clocks change?”

“Exactly,” Gartley said. “That’s why we do the 10-year one. We always recommend testing them on a monthly basis. All you have to do is push a button and it’ll beep a few times and let you know it’s still working. It’s nice and simple.”

Amaranto said the firefighters also discuss with homeowners how to make an escape plan.

“We actually leave a paper where they can draw an escape plan, and we encourage them to practice it,” Amaranto said. “Because we have seen family members go out two different doors (but) they think someone is still inside.

“So we teach them that you have two minutes to get out — which is not a lot of time — and we teach them that you need to have a meeting place. That way, everybody goes to that one place and you don’t have to wonder ‘what if somebody didn’t make it out?’”

Amaranto said the American Red Cross has tallied about 1,100 saved lives across the country since they started the program.