An early morning kitchen fire Saturday on Foote Avenue is, unfortunately, the exception rather than the rule.

Everyone made it out of the home safely in part because working smoke detectors alerted everyone of the 12:59 a.m. fire. Not everyone makes sure their smoke alarms have batteries. Too many homes have no smoke alarms at all.

The release from the Jamestown Fire Department reminded us of the relative ease with which the city and American Red Cross had finding homes willing to participate in the Sound the Alarm smoke alarm installation drive held last spring. Residents of about 90 homes signed up to receive up to four smoke alarms and have them installed by volunteers. More than 350 smoke detectors were installed.

The Western New York Regional Red Cross selected Jamestown as the signature city for the 2024 Sound the Alarm initiative due to the high number of house fires each year. Recent Red Cross data shows that Chautauqua County and the Jamestown community were disproportionately affected by home fires last year. In terms of risk of injury or death by home fire, Chautauqua County ranked second highest per capita in New York State.

Now is when we tend to see an increase in house fires as heating systems run more and electrical systems begin shouldering a heavier load with space heaters being used more and more. Last weekend, smoke alarms helped a family limit the damage to a home by getting firefighters to the scene of a fire quickly, helped save the lives of two pets in the home and possibly saved lives if people had been sleeping when the fire broke out.

“Without smoke alarms this incident could have ended much worse,” firefighters said in a news release. “Please remember to check your smoke alarms.”

It’s good advice.