American Red Cross volunteers in the Dakotas Region are saving lives. Each year they work together with fire departments, event sponsors and other community partners to install free smoke alarms across North Dakota, South Dakota and northwestern Minnesota.

From April 27 to May 12, 2019, the Red Cross held its annual Sound the Alarm. Save a Life. campaign. More than 400 homes were made safer for our neighbors with the installation of 948 free smoke alarms across North and South Dakota.

Dakotas Region volunteers installed alarms in Bismarck and Mandan, North Dakota, and in Sioux Falls, Tea, Hartford, Huron and Canova, South Dakota.

During the installations, volunteers also taught families about home fire safety and helped them develop emergency escape plans.

When a fire starts, you may have as little as 2 minutes to evacuate, so knowing what to do and where to go could save your life. The American Red Cross encourages practicing your escape plan at least twice a year.

As part of the national Sound the Alarm. Save a Life. campaign, more than 120,000 free smoke alarms were installed during that same three-week time frame, making more than 50,000 homes safer.

American Red Cross chapters are proud to Sound the Alarm.

This year (2019), 30,158 volunteers registered to be part of the home visits and installations nationwide. Events were held in all 50 states. They installed 124,329 smoke alarms and raised over $15.7 million.

Since the program was launched in 2014, more than 1.8 million smoke alarms have been installed and more than 1 million people have learned about home fire safety. 

Dakotas Region and Red Cross volunteers nationwide are installing smoke alarms to help combat the fact that each day, seven people die in home fires. As of August 2019, an astonishing 610 lives have been saved through this program.

Don’t forget to test your smoke alarm monthly, and change the batteries as needed. Working smoke alarms save lives.