By Sue Weibezahl Porter
The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York)
SYRACUSE, NY — Amid the charred wreckage of a North Side apartment, where two people died, Syracuse firefighters found something that made their hearts sink.
A smoke detector, melted by the heat, was still attached to the ceiling at 706 Carbon St. It had no battery.
“We are frustrated to tears here,” said Deputy Fire Chief Stephen Cavuto. “It’s heartbreaking. People are dying needlessly.”
Despite the department’s intensive efforts to get the word out, seven people have died in city fires so far this year — the highest number of fatalities in almost a decade.
The city of Syracuse has had almost twice as many fire fatalities as all its surrounding counties combined, according to county fire control agencies.
A working smoke detector — which the fire department provides free to anyone who asks — can alert residents to nearby smoke and buy them some time to get out safely, Cavuto said.
Since January, four adults and three children have died in four house fires in Syracuse. In the two fires where children died, neither residence had working detectors, said Fire Investigator Ken Heffernan.
“There’s peaks and valleys with no rhyme or reason to it,” Heffernan said. “1999 was brutal, then it calmed down. Could we go through the rest of the year with just the seven we have now? I certainly hope so.”
To help ensure that, firefighters are stepping up their efforts.
In the last 10 years, firefighters have visited more than 66,000 residences in the city and installed at least 25,000 free smoke detectors. They’re willing to install thousands more — if people call.
Deputy Fire Chief Ed Kurtz said the department spends about $12,000 a year to provide free detectors, at a cost to the department of about $5 each.
Fire trucks and fire stations also are equipped with spare detectors and batteries that firefighters give away. If they answer a call, even an alarm, and see that the property needs detectors, they won’t leave until they’re installed.
“We’re doing all we can to help, but at some point, people have to take some personal responsibility,” Cavuto said.
Firefighters plan to visit every city school during Fire Prevention Week, which starts Oct. 5, to give each student a homework assignment: see if they have detectors at home and make sure they work.
But firefighters can’t control faulty electrical wiring or insist people don’t smoke.
Although those are two major causes of fatal fires here, “it’s really the lack of a working smoke detector that kills people,” Cavuto said. “And it’s terribly frustrating.”
Urban areas typically have more fatal fires each year than suburban or rural areas, First Deputy Fire Chief Fred Plumpton said.
Part of the reason is socioeconomic differences, Plumpton said. “Many city properties are rented and they’re not as invested in the places as an owner might be. Crime rates in inner cities are higher and those go hand and hand with fires,” he said.
Although cities have better access to hydrants, they also have an older housing stock of mostly wood-frame buildings. Many of them have outdated wiring.
None of this negates the ability of a smoke detector to save a life, though, Plumpton said.
Fires can double in size every minute, “dramatically increasing in speed and ferocity,” so seconds count, said Cavuto. If a blaring alarm lets you know immediately that flames are nearby, that extra time could mean the difference between living and dying, he said.
Firefighters also have started working with the pediatric unit at University Hospital to make sure disabled or ill children returning home have working detectors, he said.
Wendy Rendino, of Beattie Street, was one of the first parents to take advantage of the program.
Her 2-year-old son just had surgery and pediatric case manager Stephany Hess put her in touch with the fire department.
“I only have one detector here,” said Rendino, who has been renting the apartment for a year and lives there with three small children. “I just want to make sure everything’s OK. I told my landlord I was doing it and he was really glad.”
Hess, the pediatric nurse case manager at University Hospital, said hospital staff conduct discharge safety plans for patients heading home.
“We were doing it for bike helmets and car seats and it just made sense to make sure they also have working smoke detectors,” said Hess, whose husband Tim, is a captain with the city Fire Department.
Tony Nguyen, 12, was awaiting a kidney transplant and was on dialysis when he died Aug. 20 in a fire at 706 Carbon St. started by a faulty extension cord. His mother, Linh Nguyen, 38, died two days later of injuries she suffered in the fire.
That was a family that could have benefited from the new program, said Cavuto.
The Nguyens were likely alerted to the fire by the sound of food cans and jars in the kitchen cupboards exploding because of the heat, said Heffernan. But by then, the fire was raging so badly, they couldn’t escape, he said.
On May 21, Lisa Epolito, 32, and her two children, Julia Sgroi, 6 and Joseph Sgroi, 9, died in a fire at 272 Burns Ave. That house had a smoke detector on the second floor that was wired into a home security system no longer in operation. It also had a smoke detector in the basement. That detector had no battery, said Heffernan.
There was no detector on the main floor, where the fire started, he said.
“The message gets out, but it doesn’t get in,” Plumpton said. “It’s frustrating and it’s tragic.”
Copyright 2008, The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York)