The Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal is announcing its selection as a federal grant award recipient allowing the agency to obtain thousands of smoke alarms to increase home fire safety across Louisiana. FEMA’s Grant award, totaling $168,750, will boost the SFM’s smoke alarm inventory to more than 15,000 units for the agency’s Operation Save-A-Life program.

Operation Save-A-Life partners the SFM with local fire departments and districts to provide FREE smoke alarm installations for families in need of critical emergency-alert equipment. Despite this year’s current home fire fatality count, 59, falling well below the number of lives lost by this time in 2020, 77, the SFM encourages ALL families to have working smoke alarms in their homes. This is especially important with frigid temperatures predicted across the state to start off 2022 as cold weather is often associated with an uptick in residential fires.

“We are thrilled that our Operation Save-A-Life program was considered worthy of the support of this sizeable grant,” said State Fire Marshal Chief H. “Butch” Browning, “This opportunity to access so many of these live-saving devices comes just in time for consistent cold temperatures to settle in across our state.” The top safe-heating tips we are offering families include:

• Place space heaters 3-5 feet from combustible objects like blankets and curtains

• Plug all heating appliances directly into wall outlets, not power strips or extension cords

• Do not use stoves or ovens to heat homes

• Don’t overfill fireplaces/wood burning stoves

• Do not leave candles/open flames (or space heaters) left unattended

• Have working smoke alarms in your home!

DeSoto Parish Arrests January 14-18

Several men have been arrested in DeSoto Parish over the past few days. Do you know any of these men. They are considered innocent until proven guilty.

Caddo Jail Bookings for Weekend of January 14th-16th

The following is all the people who were booked in to Caddo Correctional Center over the weekend of January 14th-16th. Many of these inmates have not yet faced trial and are innocent until proven guilty.

DeSoto Parish Arrests Since January 1

The following people have been booked into the DeSoto Parish jail since January 1. They are only charged with a crime at this point. They have not been to trial.

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