Springfield firefighters went door-to-door in the Oak Grove Neighborhood Saturday, making sure all homeowners had working smoke alarms.
Battalion Chief Alex Clark said a smoke detector is the first line of defense that's often overlooked.
"It's something that's in your home that a lot of people just don't think about on a regular basis," Clark said.
A majority of the fires Springfield crews fight are in homes. Clark said there are some areas of town have more fires than others.
"Then we're targeting that and getting out into those communities and neighborhoods to really impact the people that are having the fires," he said.
The door-knocking is part of Project RED Zone, which started in 2017 with the goal of providing the community with working smoke detectors. Firefighters go through high risk sections of the city every Saturday, depending on the weather.
Since then, the department has visited more than 24,215 houses, and given out more than 3,544 smoke alarms in those areas.
Just on Saturday, crews went to 220 homes and installed 39 smoke detectors.
Of all the fires that happened in Springfield homes over the last two years, the fire department can show it installed smoke alarms in at least 30% of those houses.
This effort is all because, Clark said, preventing a fire is just is just as important as putting one out.
"We're there when people need us and they dial 9-1-1 and the fire's actually occurring but it's what we can do as an agency to get out there ahead of that and make the impact so that the fire never happens," Clark said.
The department receives smoke alarms through grants and partnerships with local non-profits.
