Sister of fire victim spreads message to check smoke alarms

PARMA HEIGHTS, Ohio — With daylight saving time almost here, a local woman is warning the public about faulty smoke alarms.

"She had a crazy laugh, and she I think could make anybody smile," said Katie Faulhaber.

There's not a day that goes by Faulhaber doesn't think about her sister.

"We were really close, we talked all the time and you lose that connection," Faulhaber said.

Faulhaber's older sister, Amanda Wesner, was killed in a house fire in Parma Heights in 2009.

"It started while she was asleep, she tried to get out of the house," she said.

But the mother of one, with a second baby on the way never did.

"We actually found out that she was having a girl through her autopsy which was the worst way you can find that kind of thing out," said Faulhaber.

Now her entire family, especially her son, are forced to live without her light.

"My nephew is going to be 17 in a week, he's lived most of his life without her now and that really sucks because he'll never know how he was her entire world," she said. "She lived for him."

Faulhaber says her sisters life could have been saved if her smoke detectors were working.

"The fire department found I think two that were either broken or they didn't have batteries, I can't recall, but they found one that was working and it was in the basement which the fire didn't touch," she said.

She's now on a mission to save others. She posts on social media and shares her sisters story, especially during daylight saving time when firefighters across the country are cautioning folks to check their smoke alarms.

"People sent a lot of condolences and then people are telling me their own stories and its really moving to know that so many people have seen it and are sending it to their family members," said Faulhaber.

She's praying she's helping save a life and making her sister proud.

"I hope that she's somewhere where she can feel proud that I took this pain and I did something with it," she said.

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