BARDSTOWN, Ky. (WDRB) – One simple act a few years ago saved two lives on Thanksgiving day. By installing a new smoke detector, the Bardstown Fire Department helped prevent a fire from turning fatal.
Almost a week after that fire, the charred remains still surround the home. There’s broken drywall on the front lawn, the siding is peeling away and the windows are boarded up.
“I'll be okay. I'll be okay,” said Donna Livers outside her former home. “I'm numb and I'm just now thawing out I guess.”
Livers lived in the house for more than 10 years. Around 8 a.m. last Thursday, Nov. 25, she woke up, not to an alarm clock, but another noise.
“I heard something go beep, beep and it was the smoke alarm,” she said.
An electrical fire had started in the kitchen and dining room area.
“Thank God that it alerted me and I was able to get up. And as soon as I got up I noticed in the dining room there was smoke,” she recalled.
She and her companion are both grateful to the Bardstown Fire Department for getting there so quickly.
“We called 911 and they were here,” she said.
From that call, it took fire firefighters one minute and forty-one seconds to get to the house, according to Chief Billy Mattingly.
Bardstown Fire Chief Billy Mattingly (WDRB photo)
They're also thankful for what the fire department did for them a few summers ago. Firefighters installed a new smoke detector with a 10-year battery.
“I let them come in and put it up. Thank God. That's what saved me. I'm here talking to you today,” Livers said.
Smoke detectors are installed for free to anyone in Bardstown city limits. And that's not all.
“We even have what’s called a bed shaker. Where you fasten it to your bed and if its someone hard of hearing or even a small child that you don’t think an alarm will wake them, it will shake and rattle the bed to get them out,” Mattingly said.
Even though Livers lost a lot inside her home, she's a fighter.
“I've dealt with cancer. I've dealt with COVID. Well we're still going with COVID. I'm dealing with this fire,” she said.
Donna Livers' home in Bardstown caught on fire on Thanksgiving, but thanks to a smoke detector installed by the fire department, she and her family made it out safely.
And like one picture among her charred belongs that were once part of her home says, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress.” That's how she says she’s able to move forward.
“By the grace of God I'll get through this,” she said.
Mattingly said most fire departments have a smoke detector program. You just need to call and ask.
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