Smoke Alarms Installed by Red Cross Volunteers Save Woman’s Life

In the early hours of Oct. 8, Rachel Howell woke to a sound every homeowner fears: smoke alarms going off.

“I was lying in bed and I heard one of the alarms go off,” Rachel said. “I got up to look and didn’t see anything, so I went back to bed.”

Minutes later, a second alarm sounded. This time, there was no mistaking the danger. 

“When I got up, flames were everywhere,” Rachel said.

She covered her head with a blanket and tried to escape, but heavy smoke and flames blocked her path to the front door. Remembering the fire escape plan she had practiced months earlier, she was able to escape through the back door to find a safe place where she could call the fire department.

The smoke alarms that alerted Rachel had been installed just months earlier during an American Red Cross Sound the Alarm event, where volunteers install free smoke alarms and help people create home fire escape plans in partnership with local fire departments and community partners. Brothers Jim and Dave Orr, longtime Red Cross volunteers, installed the alarms in April as part of the nationwide effort to equip families with the newest and safest smoke alarms. 

During each installation, volunteers also review fire safety with residents, helping families create escape plans with multiple exit routes. This guidance proved to be crucial for Rachel’s safety.

“They reminded me that if I couldn’t make it out the front door, to go to the back door or out a window,” Rachel said. “I was able to escape through the back door.”

After firefighters extinguished the fire, a Red Cross Disaster Action Team arrived to offer emergency resources and emotional support. “I was so thankful that the Red Cross came out. They were so kind and even gave me a hug. I did not realize that the Red Cross did this kind of thing,” she said.

Rachel’s story is one of many. Home fires claim more lives in a typical year than all natural disasters combined, and the Red Cross responds to roughly 65,000 disasters annually, most of them home fires. Since launching the Home Fire Campaign in 2014, Red Cross and its partners have installed more than 3.2 million free smoke alarms, made over 1.3 million households safer, reached more than 2.4 million children with preparedness education and helped save more than 2,500 lives across the country.

The program focuses on simple steps to ensure preparedness and safety, including installing alarms, helping families create escape plans with two ways out of every room and encouraging monthly alarm testing so every household can act quickly when seconds matter.

On Nov. 10, the Cambridge Fire Department hosted a recognition ceremony in Cambridge, Ohio for the Red Crossers that directly played a role in Rachel’s life being saved. The responding firefighters and DAT members received a Certificate of Appreciation, honoring them for their continued commitment to saving lives and making homes safer.

“It’s not often we get to unite the responders, installers and DAT teams with the people they helped,” said Rod Cook, Executive Director of the Red Cross East Central Ohio Chapter. “Moments like this are special.” 

Disasters don’t pause for holidays — and neither do Red Cross volunteers. Our home fire responses spike nearly 20% nationwide during the holidays — when cooking and heating fire risks are higher. While many of us celebrate with loved ones, Red Cross volunteers in your community and across thecountry are out alongside local firefighters. We support some 40,000 people in a typical holiday homefire season. That’s 1 in 5 of the home fire survivors we help year-round.

This holiday season, no gift is too small to make a difference. If you can, please donate at redcross.org.