Jeffrey Sansouci owes his life to his smoke detector, and he’s not shy about sharing that fact.

“If I hadn’t a had one, I wouldn’t have made it out,” Sansouci said on Tuesday. “I can assure you of that.”

Sansouci lost his home at 39 Fairview Ave. in Randolph to an early morning fire Saturday after sparks from his pellet stove exhaust ignited siding and a deck; then a propane tank acted like a blow torch.

Now he’s urging everyone in Randolph to take advantage of a free program offered by the Randolph Fire Department in conjunction with the American Red Cross Home Fire Preparedness Campaign, which provides free smoke detectors and installation.

The units are donated by Kidde, which gave the Red Cross 26,000 smoke alarms with sealed 10-year lithium batteries, according to a news release in October from Kidde, a division of United Technologies.

As of Tuesday, about 20 homes in Randolph were scheduled for smoke detector installation Saturday, Randolph Fire Chief Ron Cunningham said. Among those will be the home of Sansouci’s parents, Ron and Linda Sansouci, who also live in Randolph, not far from their son’s home.

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“They’re going to have seven installed on Saturday,” said Jeffrey Sansouci, who is living with them temporarily while he sorts out insurance and other things before rebuilding his home. “I’m pretty fortunate, because they’re just down the street from me.”

Jeffrey Sansouci, 43, who had lived in the house for 16 years, said he had a smoke detector in the hallway between the two bedrooms. That’s what sounded and alerted him to the fire, which was reported at 5:15 a.m.

“If I had my door closed, I’d never have gotten out,” he said.

He said he had just changed the battery last week because he knew he was going to start up the pellet stove for the season.

While Sansouci initially escaped uninjured, his dog was less lucky.

“I ran back in to get her,” he said.

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Later that day, he realized she was in trouble.

“She had a lot of burnt fur and three or four good-sized injuries,” he said. “She was 15, and I thought the best thing was to have her put down.”

He too is nursing a third-degree burn on a finger, which occurred when he tried using a garden hose to put out the fire and burning roof debris dripped on it.

Cunningham said anyone in Randolph who would like to get smoke detectors installed can call the Fire Department at 582-9844 and leave a message. A firefighter will call back, get the details and schedule it.

“I would like to do every single house in Randolph,” Cunningham said. “If you have a smoke detector already and it’s an old one, we will replace it.”

Neighboring Pittston ran a similar program last January that proved highly successful. Cunningham talked briefly about the Old Town fire that killed a woman and two children earlier this week. A spokesman for the state fire marshal’s office said investigators found no signs of working smoke detectors.

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“You sit there and stress, ‘Why, why don’t you have a working smoke detector?'” Cunningham said. “Even if we weren’t doing this and someone called and said they didn’t have one, I’d go to the hardware store and buy it myself.”

Cunningham said the plan calls for one smoke alarm for each floor of a home and one for each bedroom.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams


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