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Arson

Friday, November 2, 2012

North Shore Fire Officials Urge People to Change Smoke Detector Batteries

The effort is designed to coincide with the end of daylight savings time this Sunday.

North Shore Fire/Rescue officials are hoping people will change their smoke detector batteries to coincide with the end of daylight savings time. “Nationally, 20 percent of all homes with smoke alarms do not have at least one smoke detector that works, mostly due to missing or dead batteries. This needs to change,” said North Shore Fire/Rescue Chief Robert Whitaker. “We want to see 100 percent of all homes with working smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors.”   The move comes on the heels of new data showing that structure fires are on the rise in the North Shore this year to date compared to last year. “Taking five extra minutes this weekend to change out batteries in these devices could save a life, and it is well worth the small …

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Building Fires in North Shore More Frequent Than Past Years

Fire Chief Robert Whitaker was unable to pinpoint a particular reason, but 2012 should have more building fires than any year in recent history.

Building fires in the North Shore Fire Department region are up dramatically from last year and are on pace to be the highest total in years. Fire officials haven't been able to pinpoint a common cause. They also say the building fires are not clustered in any one geographic area among their seven communities. "Nationally, some communities are seeing a rise in people starting houses on fire intentionally because they can't afford to keep them anymore and are trying to get rid of the property, but we haven't seen that," Fire Chief Robert Whitaker said. The causes of the building fires are "all mixed up," Whitaker said. "Lightning strikes, and so on." Meanwhile, medical calls are down, and the department is still on pace to handle roughly …

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