Pairing with volunteers from the Burn Institute, sixteen SDA employees traveled across San Diego, installing 232 smoke alarms and 44 carbon monoxide detectors in elderly residences throughout the day. PHOTO COURTESY OF SDA SECURITY

Employees of SDA Security, San Diego, spent their Cinco de Mayo helping 60 elderly home owners throughout San Diego County.

The company states that the need for interventions like the Cinco de Mayo Smoke Detector Day are substantiated by an alarming statistic: according to the U.S. Fire Administration, there are nearly 1,000 elderly deaths due to fire every year. The Burn Institute provided SDA volunteers with all the necessary equipment, smoke alarms and batteries, along with a mapped route for each group of volunteers.

For each residence, the teams installed one smoke detector per bedroom, and another in a common area, also placing one carbon monoxide detector per floor of each home. SDA employees and volunteers also added a total of 75 lithium batteries with a 10-year lifespan to any already installed smoke detectors, helping to prevent injury resulting from falls that often occur when elderly homeowners climb high ladders to replace beeping batteries.

“It’s great seeing SDA give back to the community,”said Mike Ferreira, senior sales representative and 25-year SDA employee. “As a company we have been serving Southern California for over 80 years, but this type of service is very rewarding. Three of the six homes my group went to did not have a single smoke detector installed. That is a scary statistic. I feel like we may have really saved someone’s life.”   

The Burn Institute administers the Smoke Detector Day program solely through the efforts of volunteers. The Burn Institute holds a Smoke Detector Day the first Saturday of every month, provided there are sufficient volunteers.