Lloyd building department stresses importance of smoke detectors

By Mark Reynolds
Posted 4/1/20

At a recent Lloyd Town Board meeting, Building Department Director Dave Barton reminded the public of the importance of installing smoke detectors in their homes.

Barton said his department …

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Lloyd building department stresses importance of smoke detectors

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At a recent Lloyd Town Board meeting, Building Department Director Dave Barton reminded the public of the importance of installing smoke detectors in their homes.

Barton said his department recently responded to a fire on New Paltz Road.
“It was the result of a grease fire that the gentleman stepped away from he said for only a few seconds. The fire department responded and got water on the fire and knocked it down quickly. We determined that the house was uninhabitable,” he said.

Barton said at another fire scene there was only one operable smoke detector in the building.

“It was melted off the wall in the kitchen and there were no smoke detectors in the three bedrooms,” he said. “If this had happened at night, the way the fire ran up the wall, the gentleman who was in the residence and his girlfriend would be dead now.”

Barton urged homeowners to install smoke detectors in each of their bedrooms. If they do not have any due to the cost, his department will come and install new detectors free of charge, promising that no judgment will be made of any resident for not having any. His office has obtained 30 detectors from the Red Cross.

Barton added that a department in Dutchess County wants to partner with the Town of Lloyd in securing carbon monoxide detectors, which the Red Cross does not provide.

Barton concluded by imploring the public to, “please put smoke detectors in all your bedrooms.”

On the Building Department’s section of the Town of Lloyd website, Barton has inscribed a Latin phrase that most closely defines his department’s mission; ‘Salus Populi Suprema Lex Esto,’ which has several meanings, but essentially; ‘Let the Welfare of the People Be the Supreme Law.’