ODESSA, Texas — Two months ago, an 11-year-old girl in Odessa named Azaria Williams lost her life in a mobile home fire.
Now the Odessa Fire Department and the Ector County Sheriff’s Office want to help prevent similar tragedies from happening to anyone else.
October is Fire Prevention Month and the Odessa Fire Department and Ector County Sheriff's Office want to help residents take precautions in their homes.
“And so I got a hold of the sheriff," Odessa Fire Marshal Michelle Cervantes said. "And I said, 'why don't we do a campaign where we could come together and, you know, just get a neighborhood and we can see if they don't have smoke detectors, we can install smoke detectors, free at no charge.'”
Though they knocked on every door they came across in the neighborhood, there are specific groups that they hope they can get to specifically.
As well as just do as much as they can for the community.
“We really wanna make sure we target the elderly that live alone and the family that has children, those are the most vulnerable…" Cervantes continued. "If we can do one home, and if we can secure that one home by installing a smoke detector, we can say we’ve done something."
The Fire Marshal and Sheriff hope to make this an annual campaign that they come together to do to help citizens in Odessa.
And all this is to make sure another situation like the tragedy we saw earlier this year never happens again.