Free Smoke Alarms for Marshalltown Residents

Smoke Alarm Facts

  • Nine out of 10 homes have smoke alarms, but millions of those alarms do not work.
  • Missing or dead batteries are the main causes of non-working smoke alarms.
  • More than 3 out of 5 home fire deaths occur in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms.

The members of the Marshalltown Fire Department want you to have early detection in your home should a fire occur, and thanks in part, to a donation from Wal-Mart the Department has a Free Smoke Alarm Program. The program began in 2008, after Marshalltown suffered 3 deaths as a result of fire, the highest number that can be remembered in recent years. This program has a limited number detectors annually, and the donation from Wal-Mart is applied for each year but is not guaranteed.

Dual-Sensor Alarms

Iowa's Administrative Rules now require, as of April 1, 2010, that old smoke alarms in residential properties be replaced with dual-sensor alarms. A dual sensor detector means a smoke detector which contains both an ionization sensor and a photoelectric sensor and which is designed to detect and trigger an alarm in response to smoke detected through either sensing device. Most detectors in homes currently use 'ionization' technology to detect the smoke. Some homes may have detectors that use 'photoelectric' technology to detect the smoke. Dual sensor smoke detectors may use ionization and photoelectric sensors combined into one detector or they may have a smoke sensor combined with another sensor, such as carbon monoxide or heat.

If you are a homeowner in Marshalltown but do not have working smoke alarms, or they're 10 years or older, please contact the fire department to arrange an install of a new dual-sensor smoke alarm in your home.

Working smoke alarms can increase your chance of surviving a fire by 50%.

To allow us to provide this service to you, please call: 641-754-5723 or 641-754-5751.

Further Information

  • Owner Occupied Homes Only
  • Rentals that are missing or without working alarms, contact the Housing Department at 641-754-5756
  • Installation is recommended outside bedroom areas
  • Additional recommended installations, one on every level and inside each bedroom.
  • Iowa Code now requires (as of October 1, 2009) the replacement of old smoke alarms to be dual sensor;
    • Photo-electric alarms sense smoldering fires.
    • Ionization alarms sense flaming or free-burning fires.