The American Red Cross of Maine, in conjunction with local fire departments and volunteers, has set a goal of installing 3,000 smoke detectors in homes across Oxford County in one day.
The Red Cross partnered with Norway, West Paris, Rumford and Mexico fire departments to install the free smoke alarms from 9:15 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 11.
People can sign up by calling 207-874-1192, ext. 113, or visiting www.redcross.org/local/maine/home-fire-preparedness-campaign. If the answering machine picks up, leave contact information and someone will call back.
The effort is part of the Fire Preparedness campaign, which kicked off roughly three years ago. The impetus was 2014, which marked the deadliest year in Maine for fires in recent memory, according to Patricia Murtagh, the regional chief executive officer with the Red Cross. Twenty-five people died in fires that year. That was a 31 percent increase from 2013, according to the State Fire Marshal’s Office.
“Our goal over five years is to reduce death and injury by fire by 25 percent,” Murtagh said. “We’re working hard in Maine over the last two-and-a-half years to make people safe.”
The plan is two-fold. The first is having working smoke alarms and the second is creating an evacuation plan.
“You actually have about two minutes to leave a building when a fire starts,” Murtagh said. There should be smoke alarms in every bedroom, in each hallway and on every floor. Some might not be aware that smoke alarms have a 10-year life span, she said.
“People often have smoke alarms and they will say they’re working. ‘When I take a shower it goes off. Every time I cook it goes off.’ It doesn’t mean they are working well,” she said.
Batteries need to be changed regularly in battery-operated and hard-wired smoke alarms.
“We can replace batteries. … Everybody knows they’re supposed to do it but most people don’t.”
Duringthe installation, representatives will talk with homeowners about creating a safety checklist for each home.
“We also work with them and create a fire evacuation plan, have them draw out the plan while we’re there and post it on (their) refrigerator,” she said.
Fire safety teams of three people will go into each home signed up for the event. One person will do the alarm installation and check batteries, the second will go over the safety checklist and create the evacuation plan and the third will fill out the papers and document the installation for Red Cross records.
“We know across the nation we’ve saved over 100 lives (from this campaign),” Murtagh said, adding those numbers change every week. “Here we know we have a lot of work ahead of us. We’ve already installed 5,000 smoke alarms across the state.”
The program is paid for through donations to the Red Cross, Murtagh said.
This is a campaign Norway Fire Chief Dennis Yates is happy to get behind.
“We said, ‘Yeah, we definitely want to get in on it.’ We think it’s well worth the effort. You can’t beat it,” he said. “The good thing is it’s free. … How can you lose? You know what they say – there is nothing really free, but these are free!”
West Paris Fire Chief Troy Billings said he and his crew are excited about the program because it aligns with his goals of getting working smoke detectors in residents’ homes and stepping up the department’s fire prevention programming.
“That’s my biggest goal is to make sure everybody in town is safe. … (We) go to a lot of fires. Sometimes you hear the smoke detector chirping the whole time and sometimes you don’t hear anything and it really sticks in your head,” Billings said. “If one of these smoke detectors saves one life, it is definitely worth the whole program.”
Volunteers are needed and students from Region 9 School of Applied Technology in Mexico and Oxford Hills Technical School in Paris have stepped up to the plate.
On Saturday, Feb. 25, volunteers will canvass areas identified by each town’s fire department for two hours and sign up people. On March 4 they will make call people to remind them of the appoint. On March 11, they will train in each town.
Those wishing to volunteer can call the same number for an appointment at 874-1192, ext. 113, or sign up at https://volunteerconnection.redcross.org/?nd=form__3665.
Allyson Hill, director of Oxford County Emergency Management Agency, told residents not to worry too much if they don’t sign up for the March 11 installation event. As long as there are excess smoke detectors, they can be installed at a later date on a first come, first serve basis.
Fire Preparedness campaign
The Fire Preparedness campaign is run through the American Red Cross and locally through the Maine chapter.
• Nationwide the Red Cross on average responds to roughly 60,000 disasters a year.
• Nationwide nearly 58,000 disasters are home fires.
• Nationwide 13 percent of the population does not have working smoke alarms. The figure is actually higher because people think they have working smoke alarms, but they don’t.
Source: Patricia Murtagh, regional chief executive officer of the American Red Cross of Maine.