Fire Deaths Prompt Distribution Of Alarms

Frustrated by two deadly house fires in east Tampa since Thanksgiving, emergency workers handed out dozens of free smoke detectors and batteries Monday to scores of College Hill residents.

In both fires, smoke detectors were either not installed or not working.

A block from one of the fires, inspectors and firefighters checked the smoke alarm at Joyce Phillips' apartment. The device was more than a decade old and didn't work. Phillips, 49, was grateful for the new alarm, provided and installed by firefighters.

The fire at her neighbor's house hit home.

"I was scared," she said. "I wouldn't have known that mine didn't work if they didn't test it for me."

According to the National Fire Protection Association, in 65 percent of fatal home fires there were no smoke alarms or the alarms didn't work.

Monday morning, more than two dozen paramedics, firefighters and fire inspectors met in College Hill, north of Ybor City, and canvassed 15 blocks around the two burned-out houses. They cradled armloads of smoke detectors to give away along with fresh batteries. By the time they had knocked on the doors of 150 houses, they had distributed 54 devices and dozens of batteries.

Tampa Fire Marshal Todd Spear told the crews they likely would find one-third of the homes without smoke detectors, and of those with detectors, between one-third and a half wouldn't be working.

The alarms were purchased by the Tampa Firefighters Local 754 and The Home Depot, Spear said. More are being purchased. Smoke alarms typically cost $7 but are available free year-round from Tampa Fire Rescue, Capt. Bill Wade said. In some cases, fire crews will install them.

In a fatal fire Dec. 8 at a home on Chipco Street, there were smoke alarms, but none had batteries, Wade said. One of the victims, Willie Bynes, 68, died Wednesday at Tampa General Hospital. His 26-year-old granddaughter, Latoya Williams-Jones, died Dec. 8. Injured in the blaze was Bynes' wife, Mary Jones Bynes, 73.

On Thanksgiving, a few blocks from the Chipco blaze, firefighters pulled Francis Baker, 85, from her burning home at 1915 E. 18th Ave. Baker later died of smoke inhalation at Tampa General Hospital. No smoke alarm was found in Baker's home.

Maya Williams, 44, lives across from the Byneses' charred home.

"I think it's a good idea, making sure that everybody has a detector and checking them and making sure they are working," Williams said.

Batteries should be installed during the time changes in spring and fall, Fire Inspector Tom Miller said.

"We want to make the community safer," he said. "Those five minutes can save lives."