Richmond firefighter David Loving is on a mission to prevent children from being burned by scalding bath water. Loving, after hearing a presentation on bath-time scaldings at a conference he attended, created a plastic bath-water temperature gauge in the shape of a toy bear. It’s light blue. Drop it into a baby’s bath water, and if the water temperature is too hot for baby—about 94 degrees or more—it changes to a pinkish red.

Dinwiddie County fire officials will continue to give away free smoke detectors as part of a state grant the county received that ends this month. The Virginia Department of Health awarded Dinwiddie a “Get Alarmed, Virginia!“ grant of $41,000 to pay for 3,000 detectors, tools to install them and fire-safety literature for the public. The program has allowed fire officials and volunteers this year to conduct a fire-safety educational campaign in schools, buy safety advertising and distribute fire-escape plans.