DATE: Thursday, April 3, 1997               TAG: 9704030393

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CINDY CLAYTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   62 lines

COMMUNITY OPENS HEART AFTER TWO BOYS DIE IN FIRE

After a house fire in Berkley took the lives of two small boys Tuesday morning, workers at a home health care company in Virginia Beach wanted to help make sure the tragedy wasn't repeated.

So did folks at an electrical supply company in Portsmouth and a woman at Maryview Medical Center who wanted to make a donation before going into surgery.

So when the Norfolk Fire Department asked for donations of smoke detectors to be installed in homes in Berkley, people called. And they gave.

The idea is to collect and install smoke detectors in all 1,410 Berkley homes.

Fire officials seemed pleasantly surprised Wednesday to receive phone calls from people all over Hampton Roads.

``It's becoming a real community involvement,'' said Jack Goldhorn, Fire Department spokesman. ``It's tragic that it had to start with the deaths of two little boys, but the whole city is coming together to try to keep this from happening again.''

On Wednesday afternoon, Goldhorn had collected more than 100 smoke detectors that will be installed in homes in Berkley. He said he had been promised at least 400 more detectors from companies and individuals.

Donors included folks from all over the region, including the Southeastern Tidewater Opportunity Project in Portsmouth, the Kiwanis Club of Virginia Beach, Girl Scout troops in Norfolk and others.

``We thought, you know, we don't want to see this happen again,'' said Michelle Danner of Olsten Health Services in Virginia Beach. Danner, a manager at the home health care company, said Olsten was donating more than 100 detectors to the fire department.

``We always work with other agencies because we have patients who are unable to get up or unable to get out,'' Danner said. ``This kind of helps all of us to take care of the community.''

The fire that killed Jerome Bryant, 5, and his brother Morris, 3, occurred in a house in the 500 block of Appomattox St. Their grandmother, Virginia Bryant, suffered second-degree burns when she tried to fight the blaze. She was listed in serious but stable condition Wednesday.

There was no smoke detector in the house.

According to national statistics, Goldhorn said, only about one-third of homes across the country have smoke detectors. If Norfolk is typical, out of the 98,800 homes in the city, only about 33,000 have the devices, he said.

``Our intention is to have a smoke detector in every home in the city of Norfolk,'' he said.

But for now, the department will concentrate its efforts on Berkley. Goldhorn said the first detector was installed in a house Wednesday.

Norfolk residents who don't have one of the devices should call the department's fire prevention division and ask for an installation, which is free. Firefighters from a station closest to the caller's neighborhood will do the installation.

Goldhorn added that smoke detectors are just as important for folks who rent homes as for those who own homes.

``There is a smoke detector ordinance in the city,'' Goldhorn said. ``If a person rents a property, the landlord should have a detector in the home. If there is no detector, we're advising those residents to call their landlord.''

If the landlord does not install a detector, Goldhorn said, residents should call the Fire Department and firefighters will install one. KEYWORDS: FIRE FATALITY SMOKE DETECTORS

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