The Orlando Fire Department handed out free smoke detectors Tuesday in a neighborhood where a man died in a fire the day before.

  • Man dies in Orlando house fire, son escaped
  • Fire remains under investigation
  • Firefighters handing out smoke alarms Tuesday

Two groups of firefighters knocked on about 80 doors and installed smoke alarms in about half of the homes they visited.

Fire officials said they installed the smoke detectors in the same neighborhood because there is a need for working alarms in residential homes; they want to stress the importance of having working smoke alarms.

A man died in a house fire that broke out Monday morning at 111 North Lee Street in the Parramore neighborhood.

The man pulled from the home was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he died, firefighters said. The son of the man who died did manage to escape on his own is expected to be OK.

The victim's name still has not been released.  

“Maybe you could work to come to some of the other neighborhood associations and collectively we could work together and maybe just have one meeting where you could come by and have a chat,” said Lawanna Gelzer, a Parramore resident, of fire officials.

Gelzer is hoping for more fire prevention education in the Parramore neighborhood where she said so little has been done.

“Yes we are wired here, we have to have our regular fire drills, but I would like that to transcend into the rest of the community. I need people in this community to have their smoke detectors when they are moved in and not after a tragedy,” Gelzer said.  

After Tuesday's encounter with fire officials, she now has a future date scheduled to meet with them and talk about more fire prevention activities.   

She hopes the next time she spots firefighters in her neighborhood it won't be after a tragedy.

The victim's neighbor, Kim Holden, talked about her friend Monday afternoon. 

"He was my friend he was like neighborhood watch," Holden said. "He sat when I worked and watched my house and made sure everything was OK. A couple times my water pipe broke and he turned it off and fixed it."

Meanwhile, fire officials said Monday's fire remains under investigation.

Crews did say multiple space heaters were found in the home, along with a large amount of combustible items inside the home. Also, metal bars on the windows made it difficult to escape the fire.