West Monroe FD goes door to door assessing homes, preventing fire emergencies

WEST MONROE, La. (KNOE) - The West Monroe Fire Department visited residents Wednesday morning, assessing homes and making sure items were intact to prevent future fire emergencies.

Door-to-door contact is part of the department’s Community Assets Regarding Emergency Services (CARES) Program that launched last summer. Through this program, the department is taking a proactive approach when it comes to fire safety measures in neighborhoods.

The WMFD walked door to door on North 10th and North 11th Streets on March 15, 2023, asking residents if they have working smoke alarms, and if they don’t, the department acts fast. Fire Chief Charlie Simmons of WMFD says the department has been giving away at least two smoke detectors per home for the past seven years, but while going door to door with this program, they discovered some citizens still don’t have all they need when an emergency happens.

“We look at the front of the house to see if they have a number on their home because, in the advent of an emergency, we got to get there; that’s the most important thing. If they don’t have working smoke alarms, we’ll go in, and we actually will install them,” says Simmons.

The West Monroe Fire Department will be back in the neighborhoods on Thursday, March 16, 2023, assessing homes, but this time, they’ll be visiting residents on South 9th, South 8th, South 7th, South 6th, and South 5th streets.

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