Kamloops firefighters say seven per cent of home owners they spoke to during a recent Homesafe blitz did not have working smoke alarms.

Firefighters went door to door to 585 homes across Kamloops, between November and early February, and they spoke to people at 251 homes, and tested smoke alarms in 116 of them.

Fire Chief Mike Adams says crews either installed or gave smoke alarms to people in 37 homes.

“A number of smoke alarms we replaced were either beyond the ten year manufacturers required date, others their batteries had been removed, and others had no smoke alarms whatsoever,” he said.

“We did make every effort to capture all that information so that we can look at the program and look at ways to continue to improve.”

Adams added that seven per cent is in line with the average from other similar programs across Canada.

“We’re on target with regards to that, but obviously our goal is to reduce that and eliminate it with a working smoke alarm in every home in the city of Kamloops.”

And as for the homes that firefighters visited where they did not speak to people, Adams notes they left door hangers with a variety of information.

“We would like to think that everyone that received those documents went through that and took the appropriate actions if they were delinquent in any areas,” he said.

According to Emergency Management BC, working smoke alarms in the home may increase your chance of surviving a fire by 74%.

Adams said the Homesafe program will return in November, as crews now get ready to roll out the Fire Smart program from April until June.