The American Red Cross, the South Carolina Office of State Fire Marshal, and the Hartsville Fire Department will be conducting a Fire Safety Smoke Alarm Blitz in the south Hartsville community, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28. Using a door-to-door canvassing approach, firefighters and volunteers will install smoke alarms and provide safety information to residents.
“Smoke alarms cut the risk of death from a fire in half,” said Lou Palm, disaster program manager for the American Red Cross in Eastern South Carolina. “We’re joining with the Hartsville Fire Department to help our friends and neighbors be safer by installing smoke alarms, checking batteries, and helping residents create escape plans.”
This Blitz is a continuation of Nationwide Fire Safety Campaign launched by the American Red Cross in October 2014. The goal of the campaign is to reduce deaths and injuries from home fires by as much as 25 percent over the next five years.
Since the campaign launched last year, teams of Red Cross volunteers and fire officials have installed more than 2,200 smoke alarms and provided fire safety information in neighborhoods across South Carolina.
Red Cross and the Hartsville Fire Department are asking every household to take two simple steps that can save lives: checking their existing smoke alarms and practicing fire drills at home.
“We are teaming with the Red Cross to not just install smoke alarms, but to teach the members of our community how they can reduce their risk of suffering from a home fire,” said Fire Marshal Bryan Crowley of the Hartsville Fire Department.
The goal of Red Cross’ national campaign is to reduce deaths and injuries by home fires by 25 percent over the next 5 years. Seven times a day someone in this country dies in a fire. The number of residential fire deaths actually increased by nearly 15% in 2013.
Last year, Red Cross assisted 7,118 individuals who were affected by disaster in South Carolina with the majority of those disasters being home fires.
To learn more about fire prevention visit Redcross.org. To learn more about becoming a volunteer or donating to help people affected by disasters like home fires visit www.redcross.org/EasternSC or call 843.477.0020.
There are several things families and individuals can do to increase their chances of surviving a fire:
- If someone doesn’t have smoke alarms, install them. At a minimum, put one on every level of the home, inside bedrooms and outside sleeping areas. Local building codes vary and there may be additional requirements where someone lives.
- If someone does have alarms, test them today. If they don’t work, replace them.
- Make sure that everyone in the family knows how to get out of every room and how to get out of the home in less than two minutes.
- Practice that plan. What’s the household’s escape time?
The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit
