Red Cross to install free smoke alarms in Battle Creek April 29
BATTLE CREEK — The American Red Cross will install free smoke alarms for Battle Creek residents in need next week as part of a nationwide effort to reduce the number of fire-related injuries and deaths.
House fires claim approximately seven lives each day nationally, and most of them occur in homes without working smoke alarms, according to the Red Cross. To address this threat, the organization is installing free smoke alarms in homes and increasing awareness with a smoke alarm installation and fire safety education drive dubbed Sound The Alarm.
This year's campaign kicked off April 15 and will pay a visit to Battle Creek from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 29 at The Fire Hub, 175 S. Kendall St. Volunteers are needed for the event; free training will be provided and no experience is necessary.
Those interested in volunteering can register online at rdcrss.org. To schedule a smoke alarm installation appointment, call 1-800-733-2767 or click here.
“This is an opportunity to teach families and their loved ones about how to protect themselves from these everyday crises,” Mary Lynn Foster, regional chief executive officer for the Red Cross in Michigan, said in a release. “We are grateful for the support of our volunteers and community partners to help save lives.”
Home fires account for the vast majority of the 60,000 disasters the Red Cross responds to annually in the United States. In 2022, the Red Cross in Michigan helped 7,542 people displaced by 2,088 home fires.
Sound the Alarm is part of the Red Cross Home Fire Campaign, launched in 2014 to reduce fire-related deaths and injuries by installing free smoke alarms and teaching families about home fire safety. Since the start of the campaign, the organization has installed 2.5 million smoke alarms in homes and made 1 million households safer nationwide.
In Michigan alone, the Red Cross has installed 70,462 smoke alarms and made 27,426 households safer since 2014.
“Every second counts when there’s a home fire,” Darwin Roche, regional disaster officer for the Red Cross in Michigan, said in a release. “Home fires are so dangerous and claim more lives in a typical year than all natural disasters combined. But working smoke alarms can cut the risk of dying in a home fire by 50 percent.”
Free smoke alarm installations are made possible by donations to the Red Cross. Those interested can text the word HOMEFIRE to 90999 to make a $10 donation or donate by visiting rdcrss.org.
Contact reporter Greyson Steele at gsteele@battlecreekenquirer.com
This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Red Cross to install free smoke alarms in Battle Creek April 29
