TROY – The Lincoln County Fire Chief met last week with residents at Sunrise Villa regarding safety and fire code concerns.

Chief Michael Marlo told the 15 residents attending the meeting that early detection and simple preventive measures can be instrumental if a fire occurs.

“So the big issue is early detection,” Marlo said. “That’s why you need to have smoke detectors installed and maintained annually.”

Residents told Marlo their smoke detectors are too high up in the ceiling for them to change the battery and that management is negligent when responding to their concerns.

They voiced similar concerns about the lack of annual inspections of their fire extinguishers, with some reporting it had been more than 5 years since they were checked.

In both instances, Marlo told residents local codes adopted by the city of Troy require those basic safety measures and that if they aren’t followed, to contact him.

“You go to your local authorities. Their job is to keep you all safe,” Marlo responded when asked what to do if management doesn’t address their issues. “So who’s your local authority? Certainly the fire department. We have codes and ordinances in place and we have a fire marshal that understands them. So if you call our office and you say, ‘I’m so and so. I live at this location. It’s senior living. I have concerns about my safety. These are the issues that I think are wrong,’ our ladies at our office will take all of your information and they’ll notify our fire marshal.

Marlo said at that point, after contacting management, he said the fire marshall will respond on sight.

“He will come out and do a visual inspection of your concerns,” he said. “It may it take 24 hours or so to get here depending on his schedule. Let him come out.”

Marlo said the fire department also offers to all residents, free of charge, maintenance on their smoke alarms or just a general walk though of the property to check for safety hazards.

“We’ll set up a appointment with you, and we’ll come out at no charge with our fire truck … and we’ll inspect your smoke detector for you,” he said. “We would come to your home and we have special ladders where we can get to your ceilings and give your detectors batteries or change them for you for free. We’ll even give you free detectors if you can’t afford them. And we do that for our residents because that saves lives. So it pays for itself easily.”

Marlo though emphasized anything the department does at any privately owned apartment complex, whether Sunrise Villa or else in town, they will coordinate their efforts with management.

He also urged residents to contact management first and try and get their problems addressed because safety is likely a major concern for all.

“I highly suggest you all work this out with your management folks first, so they understand you care about your safety, you care about the whole facility,” he said. “Just be honest. If you get a fire in one of your units and we can’t get there quickly and put it out and it spreads, you could lose a whole wing here. That’s huge to you all, obviously, and certainly huge to management.”

Residents also asked about common causes of fire, including overheated stoves, dishwashers and electrical surges.

They also questioned Marlo about what kind of response they could expect if there was a fire in one of the units, which were built in 2016.

“If we have four apartments burning here, we’re going to go at least three alarms. So we would need 6, 12, 18 fire trucks times four firefighters per truck,” he said. “That’s 72 firefighters on scene …. because there’s the firefighting aspect and then there’s the rescue aspect. We’ve got to evacuate other areas that are not burned yet because smoke’s already traveling down here. We’ve got to get you out. We may also have to perform certain rescue efforts in addition to fighting the fire.”

Anyone with concerns about fire safety, to schedule an inspection of their home, or to inquire about the department’s smoke alarm inspection and maintenance program, call the department at 636-528-8567.