Cape Coral Fire Dept. receives grant to install hearing impaired smoke alarms

The Cape Coral Fire Department is planning to install special devices for the hearing impaired in case of a fire emergency.

While nearly 5,500 people in Cape Coal suffer from hearing loss, Fire Marshal Dave Raborn found most people don’t have the right hearing devices installed in their home.

“If you’re hearing impaired, you’re not going to hear a smoke alarm smoke detector. You’re just not gonna hear it,” Lee County resident Sally Hewitt said.

The fire department received a grant through the Federal Emergency Management Agency to install a device called SafeAwake, a vital life-saving device for fire emergencies, which can mean the difference between life of death.

“A warning like that would actually be a blessing,” Lee County resident Carmine Lombardo said.

The device goes in between the mattress and the box spring, and when the alarm goes off it makes the bed shake.

“This unit will sense the smoke detector’s signal and activate what happens is the light comes on there’s a low tone,” Raborn said.

Each device typically costs about $225. But now the fire department has 1,200 to give away to people in Cape Coral for free.

“Instead of just handing them out to people that need them we’ll actually go to the people’s home and install them correctly,” said Andrea Schuch with the Cape Coral Fire Department.

The fire department is taking applications for the devices now and plan to start their first round if installations next week.

To apply call the fire department at 239-243-3264 or click here.