IFD Installs Smoke Detectors in Focus Area Neighborhood

Indianapolis firefighters and volunteers from the Red Cross went door-to-door this morning in a struggling east side neighborhood to hand out and inspect smoke detectors.

Firefighters and the volunteers distribute between 60 and 80 smoke detectors during a “blitz,” which happen a few times a year. This blitz took place in one of the public safety department's focus areas.

Areatha Henderson, an IFD captain in charge of education, says the budgets for residents in low-income neighborhoods are too tight to buy smoke detectors.

"They have to get groceries, do things like that. I think it just falls to the bottom of the list. I think that homeowners want them, it’s just something that gets missed," she said.

IFD credits a recent drop in fire fatalities in Indianapolis to an effort to distribute and install more smoke detectors.