By David Olejarz, Regional Communications Director
For the second year in a row, American Red Cross volunteer Candice Mushatt will be installing smoke alarms and teaching families about home fire safety during Sound the Alarm events in her hometown in Flint and in neighboring city Saginaw. It’s a role she embraces with a passion and community spirit stirred by family heartbreak.
In November 2022, she lost two young cousins in an apartment fire, a tragedy that she wants to prevent other families from experiencing.
“To watch both their mother and father have to go through something so heartbreaking,” said Mushatt, a volunteer with the East Central Bay Chapter in Flint. “To know we had these little people in our lives, and all of a sudden, they are just plucked out of our lives, and they’re gone.”
She adds, “how can we educate our community to keep families safe and to be proactive.”
Home fires claim seven lives every day nationally, and most of them occur in homes without working smoke alarms. To address this daily threat, the Red Cross installs free smoke alarms year-round and amplifies that awareness with a smoke alarm installation and fire safety education drive called Sound the Alarm.
In Michigan, Sound the Alarm kicks off Saturday, April 13, and runs through Saturday, May 11. During the four-week stretch, the Red Cross and its community partners will install smoke alarms and meet with families to discuss how to create a fire escape plan. The Red Cross installs traditional smoke alarms that make a high-pitch sound as well as devices for family members who are deaf or hard of hearing.
These services are free and made possible by donations to the Red Cross.
Knowledge is power and Mushatt sees Sound the Alarm as an opportunity to teach communities in the East Central Bay Chapter about home fire safety. Working smoke alarms can reduce the risk of dying from a home fire in half.
Seconds count when a home fire occurs. The sooner smoke alarms go off, the sooner the occupants of a home can escape The occupants have two minutes to escape to safety.
“People want this education,” said Mushatt, a Flint resident and vice president on the city council. “I think it makes them feel good to have someone come to their home, to meet them where they are and say, ‘We want you safe. We want you protected.’”
Sound the Alarm is part of the Red Cross Home Fire Campaign, now in its 10th year. Since the start of the campaign, the Red Cross has installed 2.6 million smoke alarms in homes and made 1.1 million households safer nationwide. In Michigan, the Red Cross has installed nearly 78,000 smoke alarms and made more than 30,000 households safer between 2014 and December 31, 2023.
“The Red Cross does lifesaving work,” Mushatt said. “Not only are they helping to save lives, they are caring for communities. If we have gone through something devastating, we can stand together with the Red Cross to help take care of one another.
“I would urge as many people possible to volunteer so we can get as many homes as possible installed with smoke alarms.”
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