ATLANTA — The Atlanta Fire Department is recalling 18,500 smoke detectors it handed out, and in some cases installed, for free.
Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran said they just discovered the detectors are counterfeit.
In 2005, the department bought the photoelectric detectors for $140,000 from a California vendor called Silver Sails.
The Underwriters Laboratories sticker on the back is fake.
UL, an independent product safety company, has not tested, certified or guaranteed the smoke detector.
"We are a victim," Cochran told Channel 2's Erin Coleman. "There was nothing that we had at the time that could have indicated that we were receiving products that were counterfeit."
Hundreds of homes in the Washington Park community in North West Atlanta received the detectors.
"I was glad that they came in and put it in for me. They always do things good for me," Otelia Nichols said of the Fire Department.
But now that she knows the detector is counterfeit,"I feel better now because you came out and told me, and I know that its counterfeit, and I would like to get it out."
The FBI and the U.S. attorney's office are investigating Silver Sails.
The Atlanta Fire Department plans to replace all of the smoke detectors it handed out.
They've established a hotline, 404-546-2733, to call if you have questions.
WSBTV
