Queen Creek is looking for 10 more volunteers to help keep smoke detectors working in residents' homes.
The Fire and Medical Department runs a free Smoke Detector Maintenance Program in which trained volunteers visit homes to inspect detectors, change batteries, clean units and replace them when needed. The program currently has 10 participants and the department wants to roughly double that.
What the commitment is
Volunteers work in pairs and respond to scheduled appointments rather than emergency calls. The department asks for availability two days each month, a minimum of two four-hour shifts.
Training is provided. It covers the different detector types, the quirks of the more common manufacturers, and the safe use of the tools and equipment involved.
Why the program exists
A smoke detector only helps if it works, and the failures are usually mundane: a dead battery, a unit past its service life, or a detector taken down after repeated cooking alarms and never put back.
Programs like this exist because those are the households least likely to fix the problem themselves, often older residents or people for whom climbing to a ceiling detector is not simple. Sending trained pairs to do it removes that barrier at no cost to the resident.
