The Valparaiso Fire Department is continuing its successful Out to Alarm Valpo program, offering free installation of smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) alarms for residents of the City of Valparaiso and Center Township. The program, launched in 2015, has already made hundreds of homes safer—and the department is encouraging more residents to sign up. “Working smoke alarms save lives,” said Fire Chief Chad Dutz, who created the program after firefighters noticed that many homes lacked reliable alarms. “Our goal is to make sure every household has the protection they need.”
Out to Alarm Valpo began as a partnership with Martin Security and has since expanded through collaborations with the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, Home Depot, and the American Red Cross, which now supplies all smoke alarms for the program at no cost.
Since 2022, the program has made a measurable impact:
- 268 homes visited
- 597 residents served, including 213 seniors and 127 children
- 708 smoke alarms inspected – revealing that only 56% were working
- 402 new smoke alarms installed
- 45 smoke/CO combination alarms installed
- 216 CO alarms installed
Importantly, the program has already proven lifesaving. In one case, a family whose home received alarms through Out to Alarm Valpo safely escaped a fire thanks to their working detectors.
In addition to installing smoke and CO alarms, the Valparaiso Fire Department offers home safety visits, providing guidance on fire prevention, fall prevention, cooking safety and child safety. “Keeping our community safe goes beyond responding to emergencies — we’re here to help prevent them,” added Chief Dutz.
How to Request an Alarm
Residents of Valparaiso and Center Township can request a free smoke or CO alarm installation by visiting ValparaisoFire.org and clicking on “Request Smoke Alarm.”
Fire Facts
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) estimates that in the United States:
- A fire department responds to a fire every 23 seconds
- One home structure fire was reported every 95 seconds
- One home fire-related injury occurs every 52 minutes
- One home fire-related death occurs every 3 hours
In 2023, 1,389,000 fires resulted in 3,670 civilian deaths and 13,350 injuries. Although the number of fire-related deaths has decreased by 43% since 1980, 2023 marked a 28% increase from the record low number of deaths recorded by NFPA in 2012 (2,855). The 2023 civilian fire death toll of 3,670 is down 3% from the 3,790 total in 2022. The vast majority of these deaths resulted from home fires.