We are extremely grateful to our volunteers...who enable us to make such a huge impact in our area.
The American Red Cross, in partnership with the Coraopolis Volunteer Fire Department, Sounded the Alarm to save lives during a Home Fire Campaign event in Coraopolis on Saturday, August 12, 2017. Over 50 Red Cross, Coraopolis Volunteer Fire Department, and community volunteers went door-to-door in the community, educating residents on the importance of having and practicing home fire escape plans and installing close to 300 free smoke alarms where none existed or where existing ones had failed. This Sound the Alarm event was part of the Red Cross’ five-year Home Fire Campaign, which aims to reduce the number of home fire-related deaths and injuries by 25%.
“Seven times each day someone dies in a home fire,” noted Dan Tobin, Red Cross Western Pennsylvania Director of Marketing and Communications. “Having a working smoke alarm and a home fire escape plan that you and your family have practiced can give you the time required to escape safely should the need arise.”
Sound the Alarm in Coraopolis is one of a series of fire safety events that will culminate on September 23 in the Allentown, Beltzhoover, Homewood, and Knoxville communities of Pittsburgh and in Center City Erie on October 7 when over 500 volunteers are mobilized to install more than1,700 free smoke alarms in those locations combined!
Tobin Added, “Over the past several years, the Red Cross in Western Pennsylvania has installed over 20,000 free smoke alarms in communities throughout our footprint. We are extremely grateful to our volunteers and community partners who enable us to make such a huge impact in our area, and we are looking forward to our events in September and October, when our efforts locally become part of a nationwide Red Cross effort to install 100,000 free smoke alarms during a three-week period.”
The Red Cross is grateful to our community partners who helped to make the Coraopolis event possible: Coraopolis Fire Chief Larry Byrge and the Coraopolis Volunteer Fire Department, Coraopolis Borough Manager Ray McCutchon and Mayor Anthony Celeste, Coraopolis Lions Club, Coraopolis Community Development Foundation and Center, Coraopolis Presbyterian Church, Beltzhoover Consensus Group, Minority Emergency Preparedness Task Force, Cognizant Technology Solutions, SERVPRO, State Farm, Columbia Gas, and the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania.