Local fire departments are offering a way to keep homes safer from fire.

According to a press release, the DeKalb Fire Department will be making smoke detectors available to all residents who don’t own them and will install them free of charge.

“The initial target for people to receive the smoke detectors was the elderly and handicapped because they have the most problems replacing them,” said Lt. Karl Froehlich, DeKalb Fire Prevention officer. “However, the main reason to do this is to get smoke detectors into every household so anyone who doesn’t own one should come in or call in order to claim one.”

Froehlich said the smoke detectors were also meant to be for owner occupied residences.

“Property managers are supposed to supply them for tenants but anyone without one should contact us regardless of the circumstance,” said Froehlich.

The fire department used money left over from a grant to purchase the smoke detectors.

“We started to see more and more homes with old smoke detectors that don’t work,” Froehlich said. “Most of them are battery operated and people forget to replace them, so when we see this repeatedly we try to replace as many as possible.”

The smoke detectors being offered have lithium batteries and only need to be replaced about every ten years, Froehlich said.

The Sycamore Fire Department also offers smoke detectors to its residents free of charge although they do not install them.

Sycamore fire secretary Becky Hepker said, “We normally receive donations from outside sources, the Sycamore Rotary Club for example, to purchase the equipment,” said Becky Hepker, Sycamore fire chief secretary. “We distribute them through the schools during fire prevention week or just give them to individuals who come in and are in need.”

Froelich said fully operational smoke detectors are important for home security.

“There will always be fires and until we don’t have them anymore we need something to protect ourselves,” said Froelich.