Bellevue firefighters will visit selected Eastside neighborhoods this weekend with a goal of installing 400 smoke detectors in homes where they are needed. Several teams of firefighters will go door to door and inquire if the home has a working smoke detector. If there are no working detectors and the resident allows, the firefighters will install one immediately, free of charge.

This outreach was made possible by an Assistance to Firefighters Grant offered to the Bellevue Fire Department by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Fire officials stress that having a working smoke detector is one of the most important life-safety steps you can make in a home.

Statistics show that about 65 percent of fire fatalities occur in homes without a working smoke detector. You also double your chance of getting out of a house fire alive when you have a working smoke detector.

The outreach program will focus on single-family homes in the Bellevue Fire Department service area; that includes Newcastle, Medina, Clyde Hill and the Points communities in addition to Bellevue. The firefighters going door-to-door will be in Bellevue firefighter uniforms and will have ID cards.

The installed detectors are recommended for general use. They include two detection sensors, both photoelectric and ionization. These are typically called “dual” smoke detectors because of their ability to sense the types of smoke that come from both flaming and smoldering fires.

Due to the limited scope of the program, a relatively large number of homes cannot be reached. If a person lives in a single-family home without a smoke detector, and would like to have one installed, they should call Kathy Barker, Bellevue’s Fire Education Coordinator at 425-452-7881. She will attempt to schedule an installation in their home.