Some firefighters in our region have noticed a concerning lack of smoke alarms inside of people’s homes.
Our Victoria Langowska spoke with the Red Cross about their sound the alarm initiative.
Since the start of the Sound the Alarm campaign in 2014, nearly 2.5 million smoke alarms were installed and almost 1,500 lives were save 46 of those from Pennsylvania.
The Red Cross PA Mountains Chapter supports several counties in our area. Just in the last 4 months, they installed 294 alarms. Tom Leitz, the disaster program manager for the chapter, emphasizes the need for smoke alarms.
“People don’t realize they don’t have these working alarms, or it’s not one of their high priorities to focus on so we would like to have our program out there. The more we can help people in the community and make their houses safer.”
He also spoke to us about the dangers of not maintaining the alarms.
“Most families don’t realize they have two minutes to get out of their house if there’s a fire. Most people can’t get out in that small amount of time. So, a lot of people don’t realize how often they need to test their smoke alarms and need to make sure they have working smoke alarms in their house.”
Local firefighters also spoke with me about some disturbing trends that they’ve noticed.
“Smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors are the most important things that resident should have in their home. We still go into houses where there aren’t any, or the batteries are dead or removed from them.”
The smoke alarms from the program are free and everyone is eligible.
“People say oh I can’t afford a smoke detector so I wont buy one, when it’s very important to have one and this time of year it’s just as important to have a smoke detector as having a carbon monoxide detector.”
If you have questions about installing a smoke alarm in your home you can contact the red cross or your local fire department.