American Red Cross Martin Luther King Day of Service on Saturday

It's very rewarding to see the community come together to help their neighbors prepare.

Posted January 13, 2015, American Red Cross of the Triangle, Raleigh, North Carolina

Seven times a day someone in this country dies in a fire. The Red Cross campaign focuses on joining fire departments and community groups nationwide to install smoke alarms in communities with high numbers of fires and encouraging everyone to practice their fire escape plans.

As part of this effort, ongoing smoke alarm installations are taking place, including an extensive statewide effort. In 2014, nearly 100 North Carolinians lost their lives to fire.

The local Red Cross needs volunteers and encourages the public to sign up and help save lives. Sign up to help

(http://www.eventbrite.com/e/american-red-cross-smoke-alarm-install-campaign-tickets-15034602902)

Who: Volunteers, first responders, local businesses, faith based organizations and civic groups

What: Volunteers will be installing 500 Smoke Alarms after a brief training

Where: 100 Peartree Lane, Raleigh, NC 27610 (Registration and training begin at 9:45am.)

When: Martin Luther King Day Weekend - Saturday, January 17, 2015 9:45am – 2:30pm

Seven times a day someone in this country dies in a home fire. In 2014, nearly 100 North Carolinians lost their lives to fire.

The American Red Cross has launched a 5 year campaign to reduce deaths and injuries due to home fire by 25%. The most critical part of that effort is our initiative to install fire alarms in specific high-risk areas where there are higher incidents of residential fires. To meet our goal, we are installing 500,000 smoke alarms in neighborhoods across the country over the next 5 years.

The Red Cross is asking every household in America to take the two simple steps that can save lives: checking their existing smoke alarms and practicing fire drills at home. More information is available through RedCross.org/homefires.

Simple Steps to Save Lives

Everyone can take two simple steps that can save lives: check their existing smoke alarms and practice fire drills at home,

There are several things families and individuals can do to increase their chances of surviving a fire:

If someone doesn’t have smoke alarms, install them. At a minimum, put one on every level of the home, inside bedrooms and outside sleeping areas. Local building codes vary and there may be additional requirements where someone lives.

If someone does have alarms, test them today. If they don’t work, replace them.

Make sure that everyone in the family knows how to get out of every room and how to get out of the home in less than two minutes.

Practice that plan. What’s the household’s escape time?

The Red Cross responds to nearly 70,000 disasters each year in the United States and the vast majority of those are home fires. In eastern North Carolina the Red Cross responded to nearly 1,600 home fires last year. You can help people affected by disasters like home fires and countless other crises by making a donation to support American Red Cross Disaster Relief. Your gift enables the Red Cross to prepare for, respond to and help people recover from disasters big and small. Visit redcross.org, call 1-800-RED CROSS or text the REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.