Alicante Will Install 300 Smoke Detectors In Homes Of The Elderly and Vulnerable

IN order to prevent fires and achieve safer homes in Alicante, 300 smoke detectors are being installed in homes of elderly and vulnerable people.

Alicante has been selected along with  two other towns, Oviedo and Córdoba, to promote this pioneering initiative in Spain.

The project in Alicante, and announced on Monday, August 7, is being carried out by the department of security and social welfare. This department is responsible for the elderly, those with reduced mobility and the vulnerable.

The Mapfre Foundation has donated 300 smoke detectors which will be delivered to selected elderly people who use the ‘telecare’ service.

The foundation, along with SPEIS (Firefighters of Alicante) have given talks at social centres to tell the recipients everything they need to know about the installation, maintenance and use of fire detectors as the main ally in the fight against fires.

During their talks, SPEIS have played videos that address three very important issues to prevent a fire.

They have explained the reason why domestic fires occur, the main causes, what must be done in an emergency and how the smoke detector saves lives and property.

The donated smoke detectors have three batteries which last approximately five years.

The councillor for security, Julio Calero, thanked Mapre for selecting Alicante as being one of the cities selected to carry it out, highlighting “the importance of promoting and preventing fires through firefighters’ talks, and the installation in elderly people’s homes of smoke detectors that are one of the most effective self-protection measures to warn of a fire and thus be able to save lives”.

It is expected that the fire brigade will be the ones to install the detectors in selected homes after the summer.

The Mapfre Foundation has relied on the Professional Association of Firefighters to launch the project, which is being carried out this year in collaboration with the SPEIS Firefighters in Alicante.