photo by: Sara Shepherd

Lawrence firefighters inspect the scene of a fatal fire at 938 E. 19th St., Monday, March 26, 2018.

Roger Halverstadt remembers the sweltering summer day he helped moved his daughter Madison Halverstadt into her new rental house.

“It was late in the day and we were tired … it didn’t even dawn on me to walk around and look at the place very closely,” Roger Halverstadt said.

“I think we all probably get a little complacent when we think about smoke alarms. It’s just something you expect that’s there.”

But when fire broke out in the little yellow two-bedroom at 938 E. 19th St., early in the morning on March 26, there was no smoke alarm there.

Madison died.

In Madison’s memory and to help prevent other fire deaths Roger Halverstadt and Madison’s mother, Deanna Bowman, are teaming up with the American Red Cross in an effort to distribute — and install — free smoke alarms for anyone who needs one.

The “Sound the Alarm” effort is planned for 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday, June 10.

Volunteers will be knocking on doors in Madison’s neighborhood, checking existing smoke alarms and installing new ones where needed, for free. Anyone elsewhere in town who needs a free smoke alarm can request one, and volunteers will deliver and install it.

“It seemed like an opportunity to help raise awareness,” Roger Halverstadt said. “I care about our community, and I care about the people who are here.”

Madison, 28, was born and raised in Lawrence, and had two older siblings. Her father described her as “happy go lucky” and said she was friendly and enjoyed people.

She had been working at Harper Corner Liquor, at 23rd and Harper streets, he said, and did not drive but was known for walking or riding her bike, a retro-style one with a basket and fenders.

photo by: Contributed photo

Madison Halverstadt

Investigators ruled the fire accidental and determined it started in the living room, but were ultimately unable to determine what caused it, said Division Chief and Fire Marshal James King of the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical Department.

“While we don’t suspect any foul play or mischievous behavior, we can’t put our fingers on exactly what the cause was,” King said last week. “We don’t have an exact sequence of events.”

King said investigators found no smoke alarms or remnants of smoke alarms at the scene.

The fire burned through much of the house, which has since been razed.

Firefighters pulled Madison from a bedroom but could not revive her.

“There wasn’t a burn mark on her. The inside of her bedroom was mostly intact,” her father said. “The fire didn’t kill her — she died from smoke inhalation.”

City code requires working smoke alarms in all rental units.

At the time of the fire Madison’s house was properly licensed under the city’s rental program but had not been inspected, according to the city. For owners with multiple properties, code requires inspections on just 10 percent of the owner’s portfolio and this house wasn’t one of the ones that had been inspected.

Jane Blocher, executive director of the American Red Cross for our area, said the agency has done Sound the Alarm events in recent years in other neighborhoods in Lawrence and Douglas County.

She emphasized that — to validate that donor dollars are being used the right way and to ensure the alarms don’t get cast aside — volunteers won’t just hand them out. Instead, they fully install them.

For homes that already have alarms, volunteers ask for permission to test them to ensure they’re working and the batteries aren’t dead.

“When we actually check them, many times they’re not fine and the homeowner had no idea,” Blocher said.

Sound the Alarm is a nationwide Red Cross effort to reduce fire deaths. While no “documented saves” have been in Douglas County yet, Blocher said, so far smoke alarms handed out through the program have saved more than 430 lives nationwide.

Blocher said two-thirds of fire deaths happen in homes with no working smoke alarm.

“When that alarm goes off you have less than 2 minutes to get out of your house,” she said. “Having a working smoke alarm doubles your change at survival.”

Sound the Alarm

Free smoke alarms will be distributed and installed in eastern Lawrence the afternoon of Sunday, June 10, through an American Red Cross Sound the Alarm effort.

Volunteers will be knocking on doors around 19th and Haskell Avenue, where Madison Halverstadt died from a fire in her home, which did not have a smoke alarm. The targeted area is between Rhode Island and Harper streets, from 23rd Street to Sixth streets.

Want to volunteer?

The Red Cross needs individuals and groups to help with the one-day effort. To sign up call 785-230-1914, or go online to bit.ly/savealifelawrence.

Need a smoke alarm?

If you live outside the eastern Lawrence area being canvassed for the upcoming Sound the Alarm effort and cannot afford a smoke alarm or are physically unable to install one, call the United Way at 211 or sign up at GetASmokeAlarm.org to have one installed.