By Mary Jo Blackwood, American Red Cross
On Saturday February 22, 2020, the Northern Colorado chapter of the American Red Cross was conducting a home fire campaign in the Hill N Park neighborhood in Greeley. When a team approached one house, they smelled gas coming from the residence. The front door had a padlock on it so they assumed no one was inside. The team got a safe distance away and called the lead volunteer for the campaign, Jessica Schwindt.
“I was a few blocks away at the fire station where we had our base camp set up. I headed that way while on the phone with dispatch. The Front Range Fire Department arrived onsite, spoke to the neighbor who informed them that the homeowner, an over-the-road truck driver, was away on business. The fire fighters cut the lock and gained access to the house. When the front door was opened we could smell the gas, even houses away where they let us stand. The firefighters entered and shut off the gas.”
The situation could have been very serious indeed, as Schwindt explained. The row of modular houses was set very close together and the man next door was welding. Acting quickly, she told the man to turn off the welder, at which point, he could smell the gas, too.
The alert team of volunteers saved the day and probably a good part of the neighborhood by acting quickly when they smelled gas. The home fire campaign to date has installed 142 smoke detectors in the Hill N Park Neighborhood. Once they can start up again, they plan on doing another event. It is a very large neighborhood and they want to make sure every house in it is equipped.
Unique to the Northern Colorado chapter’s home fire campaign is a grant they have obtained to also provide carbon monoxide detectors for those homes that need them, particularly homes with gas furnaces. It is one way that this chapter in the Northeast corner of Colorado is making things safer for Larimer, Weld and Kit Carson counties.
For Schwindt, this campaign is serious and a family affair. She sometimes brings along her husband and father to help with the installations because they are both 6’4” tall. The gas leak was just another example of how Red Cross saves lives in the communities they serve.
