Firefighters "Protect the Precious"

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Just a few years ago, the Terre Haute Fire Department responded to a fire that took three lives.
    
Now, they're trying to remind people that they are here to help prevent these kinds of tragedies.
    
Two years ago, on March 5, a fire claimed the lives of Kayla Lewis, her daughter Gabrielle Cunningham and step-brother Jeremiah Dupin.

The fire happened on South Ninth Street.
    
At the time of the fire, there were no working smoke detectors in the home.
    
And Richard Gallagher wants to make sure this kind of tragedy never happens again.  
   
He helped start a program called "Protect the Precious".
    
It's goal: to put a working smoke detector in every home.

"We don’t just want a detector up there, we want a detector with a good battery, working all the time,” said Gallagher.

Gallagher said there’s no excuse not to have a working smoke detector in your home right now.

“We’ve had a lot of good donations from different businesses here in town and we’ve had a lot of people come in looking for detectors and batteries…you can go to any station, if you need a smoke detector, if you need a battery,” said Gallagher.
    
The fire department makes this push twice a year. Both times at Daylight Saving Time.

“We just try to correlate it with the time change each year…if that’s in your mind, saying, ‘Well, I’m going to change my clock tonight, oh, and I’ve got to change my battery in the detector too’. That’s what we want in your head,” said Gallagher.
    
Gallagher wants to make sure that what happened to this family doesn’t happen to you.

"We supply smoke detectors and batteries. They’re free of charge. Also, if you need some assistance putting one up, we’ll assist you in putting your detector up, or we’ll come check your detector,” said Gallagher.
    
You can go to any of the eight fire stations in Terre Haute to pick up your detector and battery.