PARKERSBURG - In the wake of the recent Camden Avenue house fire that claimed the lives of three people, including an 11-month-old boy, officials with the Parkersburg Fire Department have been busy answering inquiries about the free smoke alarm program funded by a Community Development Block Grant.

After investigating the fire, officials discovered there were no smoke detectors in the rented property, where 21-year old Amanda McClain, her son Connor Joy and 26-year-old Jesse Hayes had moved into just days before.

"Since the fire, we've been very busy answering phone calls from people who would like smoke detectors for their home," said Chief Fire Inspector Tim Flinn. "The day after the fire, we had about 30 phone calls from people all over the area. It's amazing how many homes don't have them."

The fire department recently received $5,000 in CDBG funds to purchase smoke detectors and combination carbon monoxide detectors for families who qualify.

The program is available to families who live in the Parkersburg city limits. To be approved, an application must be filled out and returned to the Parkersburg Fire Department.

"You must qualify based on total family income and how many people live in the household," said Parkersburg Fire Chief Eric Chichester.

Officials said people living outside the city limits have asked about getting free smoke detectors.

"We've had calls from Belleville, Mineral Wells and Lubeck. Basically, from all over this area," said Chichester. "And unfortunately, we can't give the smoke detectors away to everyone. It's a federally sponsored program available only to people living within the city limits. What we try to do is refer the people living outside the city to their own local fire department to inquire about assistance programs they might offer."

Once the application is reviewed, officials with the fire department set up an appointment to install the smoke detectors.

The fire department received the first shipment of 200 smoke detectors and 50 combination carbon monoxide detectors in the past week. Firefighters have been out every day this week installing them around the city, Flinn said.

"A lot of our firefighters have been taking this recent fire pretty hard," Flinn said. "We try to stress the importance of fire safety, but there are still a lot of homes with no smoke detectors. It's very sad, and we don't want this to happen again."

According to West Virginia fire code laws, it is the responsibility of property owners to install operational smoke alarms in the property. It is the responsibility of the tenant to maintain the smoke alarms and notify the owner of any problems, Flinn said.

If a rental property is not up to code, tenants can contact the Code Enforcement Division to inspect the property for violations, including no smoke alarms, doors or windows that do not open and properly vented gas appliances, Flinn said.

Chichester said smoke detectors are only the first step in fire safety.

"Have a family meeting, and sit down with the kids to talk about a fire escape plan," he said. "Five minutes is all it takes."