Fire Prevention Month Begins, Fire Deaths Down

City and suburban firefighters Tuesday kicked off Fire Prevention Month, and firefighters again used the ceremony to stress the importance of basic home safety.Louisville Fire Chief Greg Frederick says there have been hundreds of fires in the last year in local homes that did not have functioning smoke detectors. He says that number is unacceptable, especially since the city fire department and the suburban fire districts provide smoke detectors for free to homeowners."With all of that, with all those programs we have to come out and ensure you have a detector, it is very frustrating to know that we still have homes in the community that are still unprotected," he says.Four civilians and one firefighter have died in fires in Louisville this year. There were sixteen total deaths last year, all civilians.