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DOWAGIAC — SERVPRO of Cass and St. Joseph Counties is doing its part to make an impact during Fire Prevention Week.

Its marketing and sales teams passed out smoke detectors to local fire departments this week to help prevent fires in Cass County and St. Joseph County communities.

The Dowagiac Fire Department was one of those departments. According to the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, 139 Michiganders perished in home fires in 2018, with $260 million in reported property damage. 

“Servpro has had a program for several years,” said Dowagiac Fire Department Deputy Chief Robert Smith. “They’ve been giving us about 100 detectors every year. We’re happy to be part of the program. We’ve already had a couple of calls. If someone needs a smoke detector, they can stop in and pick some up.”

This is the eighth year the SERVPRO of Cass and St. Joseph Counties has donated smoke detectors to local fire departments, according to the business’ marketing director Steve Meyer.

“We can fix just about anything after fire damage,” Meyer said. “But we can’t bring back lives lost due to fires. This is extremely important to us.”

According to Meyer, the funding of the smoke detector program is included in SERVPRO’s budget every year. The detectors are purchased from Menards, which offers the detectors to SERVPRO at a discounted rate.

“We get help from our sponsors at Menards,” Meyer said. “The discount allows us to get more detectors for the donation program.”

The SERVPRO of Cass and St. Joseph Counties has delivered more than 1,000 detectors to Cass and St. Joseph county fire departments. Meyer asks community members to call their local fire departments to make sure they are open and if they have smoke detectors available before driving to the department.

“It has been an overwhelming success,” Meyer said. “Manned fire stations have had success getting the detectors in families’ hands. Every year, departments ask for more.”

Area fire departments that were unable to get a hold of SERVPRO of Cass and St. Joseph Counties are encouraged to call the office. 

“We’ll make sure to get smoke detectors in their hands,” Meyer said.