A Springfield, Va. family says a new program launched by their local fire department saved their lives earlier this week.
The Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department is six months into its "Safety In Our Community" (SIOC) program.
Every Saturday, crews from local fire stations go door-to-door making sure smoke alarms are both installed and working properly. Crews visited the Nahim family in two months ago, warning them to replace a smoke alarm outside a bedroom door.
Tuesday night, a fire started inside that bedroom and Hassan Nahim told News4 his house would no longer exist if he hadn't been told to replaced the alarm.
"Nothing could have stopped that fire. I mean this house would be down, definitely would be down," Hassan said.
More than half of the homes in Fairfax County don't have working smoke alarms, according to Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Chief Richard Bowers.
"Our men and women have visited over 40,000 homes in the county and installed over 6,000 smoke alarms free," Bowers said.
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"It saved everybody's life," Mohammed said. "Everybody needs one upstairs, downstairs... everywhere."
