The month of October is set aside annually as Fire Safety Awareness Month, with the week of Oct. 3-9 specifically designated as Fire Prevention Week. In recognition of this, Griffin Fire-Rescue (GF-R) will once again be working to bring fun and education to the Spalding County Fair.

“Griffin Fire-Rescue has its own pavilion at the Kiwanis Fairgrounds and we’ve just built a mini-theater out there,” said Griffin Fire Marshal Mitchell Cardell. “We’re going to run Disney-based fire safety programs on a continuous loop throughout the fair.”

Cardell said the reason for this undertaking is GF-R’s ongoing effort to educate the community.

“One of our goals in fire prevention is education and this is a wonderful opportunity to get our fire safety message out to the community. It’s a great platform,” he said.

Cardell said the particular focus of Fire Prevention Week 2010 is “Smoke Alarms — A Sound You Can Live With,” which is a lesson GF-R fully supports.

“Based on our local data, when we do fire reports, one of the criteria is to establish if a smoke detector was in the residence and if it was working,” Cardell said. “Time and time again, we have found that smoke detectors have played an important role in enabling residents to exit their homes early in the fire process — they were a contributing factor to human safety. We are very strong proponents of smoke detectors in homes and truly believe they are a life-saving device.”

Cardell recommends that all residences have smoke detector units installed, and that families ensure they are properly functioning.

“Make sure they’re tested once a month and change the batteries annually,” he said. “But, because of the fact that there are numerous manufacturers, just be sure to follow the individual manufacturer’s instructions.”