National Fire Prevention Week is this week and there are some general fire safety reminders for people to be aware of.

Jefferson Fire Chief Randy Love says some of the most prevalent causes of fires in the home are overloaded outlets and circuits.  He recommends keeping an eye on those areas of your home and trying to not plug too many devices or appliances into them, which can cause the circuit to overheat and burst into flames.

He also strongly urges everyone to make sure that they have a smoke detector in the home and that it is working properly.

“A lot of our fire incidents we’ve seen a lot of them when they’ve disconnected the battery, but that’s always a bad thing to do.  And that’s the other reason for checking it, just to make sure that it works, if you would find it to be a bad battery or unplugged, make sure you get it working.”

  If a homeowner doesn’t have a smoke detector, the fire department will install one for free.  Call the Law Enforcement Center’s non-emergency number, at 386-2136 for more information.