CHARLOTTE — Christmas day is a day for many to stay home with family, but that isn’t the case for some members of the Charlotte Fire Department.
On Wednesday, hundreds of personnel were on standby ready to respond. They ended up being very active.
“We’ve been to, I was trying to actually figure out exactly how many fires we’ve been to but several significant fires over the past holiday period,” CFD Division Chief David Farnum told Channel 9′s Eli Brand.
Farnum said there have been no breaks for his department this week.
Charlotte firefighters ended up fighting multiple fires on Christmas Day and Christmas Eve.
One of those on Christmas morning, that happened on Spanish Quarter Circle, resulted in two people and three cats dying.
Fire officials said it was discovered that the smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector inside weren’t working because their batteries had been removed.
Farnum said it’s a tragic reminder that you should always be making sure your smoke detectors are functional.
“We always push this information out. We’re just using this opportunity to draw attention to that, again because of the three tragic deaths that have occurred at two separate fire incidents over the past few days,” Farnum said.
On Park Road in south Charlotte, another person was killed in a fire on Dec. 22.
All three deaths happened when candles were left unattended.
One of the non-deadly fires that required a large response was in north Charlotte on Harris Ridge Drive.
Farnum said these responses show that the fire department can never take a holiday off.
“They’re going to have some inconvenient times where they have to serve the citizens here in Charlotte and they’re going to have to take time away from their families.”
Fire officials recommend you check the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors twice a year to make sure they are working.
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