QUINBY, S.C. (WBTW)- On Saturday the Windy Hill fire department partnered with the American Red Cross to install smoke detectors in more than 100 homes in the Quinby area. Nearly thirty firefighters and volunteers went door-to-door asking residents if they could check to see if everything was up to date. If it weren’t for the fire department, some people’s homes wouldn’t be as safe as they need to be.
 “I can’t imagine a more horrible death than fire,” said Phyllis Wittschen.
Phyllis Wittschen has lived in her home for more than forty years. It wasn’t until Saturday that she learned her home needed more than one smoke detector.
 “I didn’t realize I should have them in every bedroom. I thought the one in the hall took care of all of that in the back of the house.”
Firefighters say you need to have multiple alarms and that the entire device, not just the batteries should be replaced every ten years. Wittschen’s fire alarm was 15 years old. 
“I’m safer, I’m very grateful to them, I’m very much safer, thank you.”
But fire marshal Chris Johnson says He and his colleagues were just doing their job.
 “We care about their lives, and give them an early detection in case something happens because that’s why we’re in the business. We’re here to help them whenever it’s needed.”
The fire marshal said in more than fifty percent of the house fires they’re called out to that people have taken the batteries out of the smoke detector when the batteries were low and the detector kept chirping but he says doing something like this could be deadly.
“If you take your batteries out, it’s not going to work to let you know there’s a fire or something wrong to be able to get out so that’s a crucial thing,” said Johnson.
Whittschen said sometimes she forgets the important things and realized Saturday’s Smoke detector blitz May Save her life.  
“We think we will do that later and we forget but life is very important  and this is a life-saving thing.”
If you live in the Quinby area and missed the firemen and American Red Cross today and think you may need a detector, the fire marshal urges you to contact the windy hill fire department.