A volunteer installs a smoke alarm during the American Red Cross’ Sound the Alarm Campaign event in the Colonial Estates neighborhood in June. Some 182 alarms were installed in homes that needed them.
The statistics are alarming. Most people don’t realize they just have two minutes to escape a home fire, which is the nation’s most frequent disaster, according to the American Red Cross.
- Every day, seven people die in home fires, most impacting children and elderly
- More than 30 people suffer injuries from home fires every day
- More than $7 billion in property damage occurs from home fires
That’s why the Red Cross launched its Home Fire Campaign in 2014, and Sound the Alarm is a critical part of that effort. Through home visits, the nonprofit has installed more than 2.5 million free smoke alarms and made more than one million households safer across the country.
Working smoke alarms in a home cut the risk of death by half, and having an escape plan further improves the odds of survival, according to Red Cross,, whose partners across the country have saved at least 2,100 lives through the Home Fire Campaign, including 20 in the state.
More than 53,000 free smoke alarms have been installed in New Jersey homes since the launch of the campaign, which can now add 182 alarms to that record.
Red Cross members from the New Jersey region and community partners including police Sgt. Don Darcangelo, the Monroe Township Office of Emergency Management, the Cecil Fire Department, the Williamstown Fire Company, PSEG and Holman Global Headquarters came together to install alarms in 100 Colonial Estate homes in the township as part of the June campaign.
Volunteer firefighters went door to door in the neighborhood to install the devices, often teaching fire safety and helping families create fire escape plans.
Mayor Greg Wolfe – along with Dan Klahn, property manager of the Colonial Estates, and Rosie Taravella, CEO of the American Red Cross – were also on hand during the campaign.
