American Red Cross volunteers and members of the Skyland Fire Department recently teamed up in the Camelot Mobile Home Park to help make the community safer from home fires.
This follows the tragic death of an elderly man in this community in a home fire Jan. 24. Twenty-four homes were made safer.
Teams went door-to-door checking existing alarm batteries, replacing alarms that were older than 10 years or not working properly, and installing new alarms in homes where there were none. Volunteers and firefighters also spoke with residents about home fire safety and helped them create fire escape plans.
“In 2014, the Red Cross started its Home Fire Campaign with a goal of reducing home fire deaths and injuries by 25 percent. To date, we have 348 verified lives saved since the campaign started, including one in our region in Haywood County.” said Alli Trask, executive director of the Asheville-Mountain Area Chapter of the American Red Cross. “We know that having a working smoke alarm reduces the risk of injury or death from a home fire by 50 percent. We hope with this event we helped empower our neighbors with the knowledge and tools they need to better protect themselves and their families.”
Fire experts agree that people may have as little as two minutes to escape a burning home before it’s too late to get out, so having an escape plan is as important as a working smoke alarm. To learn more about how to create a plan and other fire safety tips, visit redcross.org. To request a smoke alarm, installation or to have smoke alarms tested, visit soundthealarm.org/wnc.
The Red Cross responds to nearly 64,000 disasters every year. The majority of these disasters are home fires. On average, seven people die and 36 people suffer injuries in a home fire every day.