On Sunday, April 14, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., the Sayville Fire House (located at 107 North Main Street) will be giving away smoke detectors for community members who are residents of the Sayville Fire District.

Last September, the fire department received a grant of $30,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for fire prevention, and purchased 1,600 smoke detectors to distribute to the community.

The smoke detectors have a battery life of 10 years and are meant to be discarded after the decade period.

The grant, which is the first time the Sayville Fire District had applied for the funding, was based on an application that outlined what the fire department has done for the community in terms of fire prevention awareness.

“It’s one of the hardest grants to get,” said Mark Schmittzeh, who has served as a commissioner for the district for 10 years and has served Sayville for over 20.

Schmittzeh credited the issuance of the grant to Sayville for their long and wide-reaching fire prevention efforts that were detailed in the grant and peer reviewed.

“We want to take care of our seniors,” said Schmittzeh about the plan outlined in the application to purchase smoke detectors to distribute to community members.

Bob Smith, a former rescue captain who has served Sayville for over 40 years, has also been the head of the fire prevention program that educates all community members, “from preschool to senior citizens,” according to Smith.

In October, Fire Prevention Month, the firefighters visited all schools in the district and handed out over 600 bags for fire safety.

One of the biggest issues that fire safety covers for seniors is how contemporary fires allow less than five minutes for a safe exit, whereas before it was 10 to 15 minutes.

Schmittzeh said this rapid decrease in safety time was due to manufacturers utilizing materials with a higher flammability.

“Furniture used to be made of real wood; now it’s pressed with cheaper glue that works as an accelerant,” said Schmittzeh as an example.

Wiring, even older systems, does not tend to be a problem, said Schmittzeh. “It’s usually a bad appliance, like a toaster oven or a bad outlet.”

When students come to the firehouse, they learn about the fire trucks and are shown videos on fire safety

“The video I use is from 1994, and the kids love it. It keeps their attention,” said Smith, who cited that an elementary-aged Lindsay Lohan appears in the video for a few minutes.

Typical activities include practicing to stop, drop, and roll and having a safety plan in the event of a fire.

Students are told to scream “smoke detector” should one go off and their parents are unable to hear the noise.

Seniors, especially those with health conditions and limited mobility, are strongly encouraged to register with the local fire department so that in the event of a dispatch, firefighters are aware of the acute situation ahead of time.