Firefighters deliver safety tips with pizza in Marysville

Published 8:27 pm Tuesday, November 3, 2009

MARYSVILLE — If you order pizza today or tomorrow, don’t be surprised to see firefighters bring it to your door.

Domino’s Pizza will partner with the Marysville Fire District this week to help raise awareness about fire safety, fire district spokeswoman Kristin Thorstenson said.

Crews will be tagging along on pizza deliveries from about 4 to 8 p.m. and offering families to check their smoke alarms, change the batteries and, if needed, to install a new smoke detector for free.

“We don’t want anyone to go another night without fire protection,” Thorstenson said.

If all smoke alarms in the home work, families will get a gift certificate for their next Domino’s pizza, she said.

More than a dozen local firefighters are participating in the event, which started Tuesday.

Some crews had a late start, however, as they rushed to investigate a commercial fire call, Thorstenson said.

Statistics show that smoke alarms double your chances to escape a house fire, she said. The danger really hit home last year, when two little girls and two women died in a mobile home fire in Snohomish. Local firefighters wanted to reach out to as many people as possible to educate them about smoke alarms.

Research also shows that kids under the age of 7 often fail to wake up to the sound of smoke alarms, Thorstenson said.

Families should do a fire drill at night to see if their children wake up. If they don’t, a good solution would be to get a smoke alarm with a voice recording.

Young children more likely will respond to the sound of a parent’s voice giving them direction, Thorstenson said.

“We want you to know the night of a fire drill if your children will wake, not the night of a fire emergency,” she said.

Katya Yefimova: 425-339-3452, kyefimova@heraldnet.com.