Kristen Shaw's Story: Smoke Detectors Save Lives

Written by: Kristen Shaw, volunteer

I remember one night in high school waking up in the wee hours of the morning to the sound of a deafening BOOM through my window. I groggily stumbled out of bed and peeked through my blinds to see where the noise had come from and spotted a massive orange flame gaining strength on the roof of a nearby house. A propane tank had exploded somewhere on the street and a fire had started! I flew down the hall to wake my parents as fire trucks pulled up outside, and a few minutes later most of the neighbors, like us, had trickled out onto the street to see what was happening. Less than an hour later the blaze was extinguished, and my classmate and his family were okay, but their home had become a blackened shell. They had lost their beloved pets and most of their belongings in the fire. It took them months to rebuild.

Home fires claim about seven lives every day. Much like that night in high school, fires can happen at any time and spread fast, and being prepared is the best way to survive them. My neighbors were able to get themselves outside quickly because of they had working smoke detectors that worked properly.

In 2014, the Red Cross launched its Home Fire Campaign called Sound the Alarm. Safe a Life.  Its goal is to reduce home fire deaths and injuries by 25 percent by 2020. To do this, volunteers visit at risk neighborhoods, providing fire safety education, outfitting homes with free smoke alarms, and inspecting existing smoke alarms to ensure they work properly.  Since Sound the Alarm was launched in October 2014, over 1 million smoke alarms have been installed in homes across the country, improving the fire safety of over 400,000 homes, and saving 332 lives!

Today I live with my sister in a two-bedroom apartment on the second floor. We are very interested in home safety, so we drew up a fire plan and bought a fire ladder to hang out of either of our windows in the case of an emergency. We make sure to test our fire alarms regularly. We’re also careful to turn off all space heaters, curling irons, and the stove after each use and before leaving the apartment. Simple but important tips like these help the Red Cross teach the public about fire safety. It is especially important to reach out to youth and the elderly to help them reduce the risk of fire.

You can get involved in the Sound the Alarm campaign by fundraising, donating, or helping to install fire alarms in your community! Visit http://www.redcross.org/local/washington-dc/home-fire-safety for more information and upcoming event dates.