A partnership between The American Red Cross and the Picayune Fire Department, along with a donation from Norman Tyner to the Poplarville Fire Department, is providing free smoke detectors to local homeowners. The effort is a act by departments to give back to their respected communities while ensuring the safety of the citizens.

“For citizens in the city and homeowners who need a smoke detector, they can give us a call at our central station and we’ll set up a time to go install them,” said Picayune Fire Chief Pat Weaver.

Weaver says there has been high demand by local families who need reliable smoke detectors. The Picayune Fire Department has provided citizens with free smoke detectors for the past several years when they are available.

This time around, they’ve given installed over 200 smoke detectors that have a battery life of up to 10 years. The Fire Department will also replace damaged or dead smoke detectors with a new one.

“It’s just something that we offer here in Picayune to prevent someone from dying of a house fire, we want to help prevent that,” said Weaver.

Homeowners can contact the Picayune Fire Department at 601-798-6513 to schedule and receive their smoke detector installation. This program will go on until the department ran out, then Weaver will put in another request to American Red Cross for more smoke detector donations.

About 100 smoke detectors were donated to the Picayune Fire Department by Glenn Neal in February of this year.

During a previous city of Poplarville Board of Aldermen meeting, the Poplarville Fire Department received 76 smoke detectors as a donation from Poplarville Realtor Norman Tyner and Braden Neal. Fire Chief Jason Bannister said his department will post on Facebook to alert the public about how to receive a free smoke detector and have it installed by a firefighter.

In either case, the smoke detectors are only for residents within the Poplarville or Picayune city limits and are only for homeowners. Citizens must also call the station at 601-795-2200 to schedule an appointment within Poplarville. Bannister noted that they don’t have a supply of batteries but will assist with replacing smoke detector batteries for citizens through an appointment. They also will assist in checking resident’s current smoke detectors and do site evaluations with every installation.