Firefighters teaching civilians to do a CPR procedure/via Flickr LAFD

A high number of preventable fire-related deaths in January prompted city officials and fire department authorities on Tuesday to intensify their outreach efforts and distribute free smoke alarms in poorer neighborhoods.

James Featherstone, the Interim Fire Chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department, said at the Los Angeles city council meeting that while a total of 21 fire-related deaths occurred in the entire year of 2013, a third of that occurred just in the first month of 2014. 

“Any death of an Angelino is tragic,” said Featherstone. “But to have the number of deaths we’ve had in the month of January that are related to fires is a crisis call for us.”

Deputy Chief of LAFD, Mario Rueda called attention to a recent fire-related incident that happened in the Mid-City area in the past week claiming the death of a 36-year-old man.

“What was particularly tragic about that fire was that it wasn’t a large fire but the bracket for the smoke detector was on the wall with the smoke detector removed,” Rueda said.

Most of the deaths that occurred in January were preventable and happened due to the absence of working smoke alarms at homes, said Featherstone. In fact, 60 percent of all fire-related deaths in the nation that happened in residential areas happened either because there were no smoke detectors or the installed devices weren’t working, he noted.

SEE ALSO: Convicted Arsonist Sentenced To Death for San Bernardino Fire

LAFD is going to redouble its outreach efforts, said Featherstone, recently creating a program called “15 minutes of safety” to achieve this goal. As a part of this program, firefighters will park their fire trucks in a community hub like a school, senior center or neighborhood council for 15 minutes everyday and interact with the community to increase public awareness. They will handout informational materials in multiple languages and educate the public about the importance of installing smoke alarms.

“We have handed out…information for years, but the presence of the fire apparatus is a natural attraction for a lot of the school children,” said Featherstone. “ We want to actually be out there and have a presence and say that we are with you….So that we don’t have a lot of instances of these needless fires.”

SEE ALSO: City Urges LAFD To Fix Its Response Time Data

The department is going to focus its outreach efforts especially on school-going children, as they can act as ambassadors and educate the elders in their homes, Featherstone said. He also added that the department would make special efforts to reach out to senior citizens, as they were a particularly vulnerable group during fire incidents, mostly due to their limited mobility.

Councilman Tom LaBonge said that he would do everything so that these deaths don’t happen, especially because they were preventable.

“We have to remember to preach these things all the time,” said LaBonge. “Come spring, come fall, always check your smoke detectors.”

 The fire department has also started partnering with smoke detector manufacturers and retailers to distribute devices to people who weren’t able to afford them. LAFD has over 2,000 devices in stock ready to be distributed. Featherstone said they would start distributing the devices from Wednesday.

Councilman Joe Buscaino requested Featherstone to keep in mind the South Los Angeles area in general and the Watts neighborhood in his district in particular, while distributing the devices. Communities in the South Los Angeles area were amongst the poorest in the city and needed these devices the most, he said.

Reach staff reporter Sinduja Rangarajan here. Follow her on Twitter here.