McMinnville Fire Department will soon be increasing its protection efforts to city residents with a new program that will offer free smoke detectors, installed and inspected.The program is called “Install, Inspect, Protect” and it’s for individuals who meet certain guidelines. Department employees will purchase, install and maintain smoke detectors in the homes of those individuals.Need is the main criteria a person must meet.“If you can obtain and maintain your own smoke detectors, we urge you to do that,” said firefighter Joey Sweat, “but you do not qualify for this program. This program is for individuals who lack the financial ability to purchase them and/ or the physical ability to maintain them.”Alarming statistics have the Fire Department going above and beyond its normal job requirements in an effort to be proactive and protective of the citizens they serve.“On the average, some 3,500 people die every year in the United States in residential fires,” said Sweat.