A few days ago, Elizabeth Hogue of Elliott had an oven fire, and put it out using a small extinguisher.

Yesterday, the 79-year-old got two smoke detectors, personally installed by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl. "Isn't it wonderful?" she gushed.

The mayor came to her house to kick off an effort to install at least 1,000 smoke detectors in city homes.

"In 2006, we had the occasion of losing nine individuals, nine lives, in fire deaths, the highest total since 1997," he said. Giving away smoke detectors is part of an effort "to make this city the safest in America."

Mr. Ravenstahl stopped short of endorsing a proposal by Councilman William Peduto, his mayoral rival, to require periodic inspections of rental units to ensure that they meet building code requirements. The code demands a detector in every bedroom and in common areas.

Fire Chief Mike Huss said that firefighters will come to the domicile of any city resident -- renter or homeowner -- and install a detector, or occasionally two. That won't necessarily be enough to meet building code requirements, but will give residents a better chance of getting out in the event of a fire, he said.

"There's nothing more important to survival than early detection," he said, noting that a Greenfield home that was the scene of a fire on Saturday lacked detectors.

This year Liberty Mutual Insurance donated $1,000 toward the cost of the 1,000 detectors, which the city is buying for around $11 each. The city will foot the rest of the bill, and will seek state or foundation help if it needs more detectors to meet demand.

Residents can call the city's 311 help line to get one installed.

Last week the Allegheny County Health Department announced that it will install as many as 1,000 smoke detectors in areas that have had significant numbers of fires in recent years, including city neighborhoods of Allentown, Beltzhoover, Carrick, Hazelwood, Homewood, Lincoln-Lemington and Perry South.

Recent city Bureau of Building Inspection visits to rental housing in Oakland suggest that many apartments there don't have working detectors. That neighborhood has been the scene of two fatal fires since July.

Mr. Peduto last week called for mandatory triennial inspections of rental housing in student-heavy areas of Oakland and Squirrel Hill. High on the inspectors' checklist, according to draft legislation, would be smoke detectors. Mr. Ravenstahl said he isn't yet ready to endorse that approach.