The month of October tends to bring cooler weather, hayrides and, to the surprise of some, fire awareness.

As part of fire prevention awareness month, several local businesses and individuals will be working to keep the community safe from fire during the month of October.

One of these business is local cleaning service Servpro, which will give away 1,000 smoke detectors to residents of Cass and St. Joseph counties.

“We really just want to do our part,” said Marketing Manager for Servpro Steve Meyer.

Servpro is a national franchise that specializes in cleaning up water, fire and mold damage for both commercial and personal purposes. The Cassopolis branch of the business services Cass and St. Joseph counties.

Meyer said Servpro has cleaned up everything from sewage back-ups to crime scenes.

“My favorite saying is we will clean up anything you wouldn’t clean up,” Meyer said.

By partnering with fire departments in St. Joseph and Cass Counties, including the Cass Fire Department, Dowagiac Fire Department and Marcellus Fire Department, Servpro is able to provide those fire departments with smoke detectors in order to make the smoke detectors easily accessible to people in each of the communities that Servpro serves.

Residents of St. Joseph and communities can contact their local fire department to receive free smoke detectors from Servpro or they can contact Servpro directly.

Many branches of Servpro from across the country have been giving away 1,000 smoke detectors to local fire departments for the last five years.

The annual giveaway began after a branch was called to the scene of a fire that could have been prevented with the aid of smoke detectors.

“Two people passed away in that in fire, and part of the reason is that they didn’t have smoke detectors,” Meyer said. “People often ask why we do this, and we always say that we just want to keep our community safe.”

Incidents like these are why Servpro employees like Meyer believe that having smoke detectors in the home is important and aim to ensure that people know to have multiple smoke detectors in the home and replace those smoke detectors at least once every 10 years.

Servpro believes it is so important that the Cassopolis branch alone spends $3,000 per year supplying residents with free smoke detectors. By working with the Menards in Three Rivers, the branch is able to obtain the smoke detectors at cost, allowing them to offer more smoke detectors to the community.

“We like to give back to the community that we work in,” Meyer said. “If we can save lives, that’s something that we can definitely spend money on and help out our community.”

Meyer said that both local fire departments and residents alike are grateful for the smoke detector giveaway, in large part because the typical fire department budget does not allow for smoke detectors that can be given away to residents.

“It is really helpful,” said Jesse Binns, the assistant chief at Cass Fire Department.

Binns said the Cass Fire Department has been receiving cases of smoke detectors from Servpro for several years, and that their partnership means that every Cassopolis resident should have access to a smoke detector in their home.

“Due to the amount of fires you see where you get into the home and there are no smoke detectors, we know that a lot of people need these,” Binns said of the free smoke detectors. “It’s a simple thing that really saves lives.”

Both Meyer and Binns said that the smoke detector give away always has a high level participation. While participation numbers dropped slightly last year, neither see that as a bad thing.

“Every year, the number of smoke detectors picked up dwindles, and I think that’s because we are doing our job and getting smoke detectors into the homes that need them,” Meyer said. “We are serving our community and doing our part in fire prevention awareness.”