Christopher Switala, Butler’s new fire chief, says one of his primary goals is a renewed focus on fire prevention. He wants to increase the number of smoke alarms in residences as a top initiative.

We commend his plan. According to the U.S. Fire Administration, Pennsylvania ranks third in the United States for civilian fire deaths, trailing only New York and California, both of which have significantly larger populations. A total of 128 people died in fire deaths in the state in 2018, which is an increase from the 112 people who died in 2017 and the 116 Pennsylvanians who lost their lives in 2016.

There are multiple factors that can lead to fire deaths, but the most common is the lack of a working smoke detector. Firefighters have long reported combating blazes at homes where alarms have been installed but are inoperative — most often because the homeowner forgot to replace the battery. Three out of every five fire deaths occur in a home without a smoke alarm or where an alarm is inoperative, according to the National Fire Protection Association. And the death rate per 100 reported home fires has been found to be more than twice as high in homes without smoke alarms compared with residences in which they were operable.

So, it’s encouraging to hear that Switala, who was a firefighter for 17 years before becoming Butler Township’s fire marshal in April and being sworn in as fire chief in October, wants to recreate a fire prevention program that he said proved successful in Mount Lebanon, where fire-related injuries were reduced by 60 percent and property losses dropped by 20 percent. We agree with Switala’s assessment that “having a working smoke detector is the best defense you can have.”

Switala estimates 35 percent of Butler’s homes do not have working smoke detectors. This means that thousands of residents are living under an unnecessary risk.

We also agree with Switala’s other proposed initiatives for Butler, such as having city and township firefighters train with each another to enable them to work better together when responding to emergencies, finding a long-term solution for the replacement of a city ladder truck that was damaged in 2017 and updating the city’s commercial fire safety inspection program, in which firefighters will determine whether commercial buildings have sufficient sprinklers or other fire suppression systems.

Switala told the Butler Eagle that some of the city’s fire-related policies and procedures had not been updated in the two years before he took on the role of fire chief when the position remained vacant.

We believe that preventive medicine is the best solution to many problems, and applaud the city’s new fire chief on his efforts to ensure that Butler residents do not become statistics.