The American Red Cross and Bloomington Fire Department, along with several volunteers, will team up to install 410 smoke detectors in local homes this weekend.
There are seven fire-related deaths each day in the United States, according to a City of Bloomington press release on this weekend’s event. The national Home Fire Campaign, spearheaded by the American Red Cross, is attempting to reduce death and injury caused by home fires by as much as 25 percent in the next five years.
The Red Cross and BFD will install the alarms beginning at 8:45 a.m. Saturday, April 2, in Arlington Valley Mobile Home Park. The teams will also teach people how to prepare in case a fire erupts in their home.
Kurt White, disaster program specialist for the American Red Cross, said the program started really gearing up around January 2015 and has since saved five lives in Indiana and 77 lives nationally.
“You may only have two minutes to get out of the house when it catches on fire, so it’s important to have that smoke alarm,” White said.
White said he hopes to have 10 teams show up on Saturday, with three people per team.
The Red Cross chooses areas to target with the program based on past incidents and fatalities related to home fires. Bloomington was selected, White said, because the city has had a recent fatality in the mobile home neighborhood to which the teams will be distributing smoke alarms.
White said he believes the city will benefit from the program, as it’s been successful in the past in reducing deaths caused by fire.
“It’s a big deal, even for the firefighters, when they have to deal with fatalities,” he said.
