By Josh Egbert, American Red Cross of Colorado and Wyoming, Public Affairs
On a warm, sunny October morning, volunteers with the American Red Cross of Mile High loaded up their wagons with ladders, drills and smoke alarms as they set out to make homes safer in a Federal Heights neighborhood.
That particular Saturday morning, Kimberly Cieplinski was at home with a list of tasks to accomplish for the day. One of the items on her to-do list just happened to be “install smoke alarms”. That’s when she saw red vests going door-to-door.
“We recently had an incident with my son,” said Kimberly. “Our hot water heater had gone out and we didn’t know, so my son’s bedroom was being filled with carbon monoxide.”
Luckily, the family had cracked open a window for their swamp cooler to work. That incident led Kimberly and her family to check other safety concerns, which included installing smoke alarms.
“It means a lot. Another check off my list,” said Kimberly. “Having the Red Cross do this, even the young ones here helping out, it’s amazing.”
Volunteers and our partners at the Federal Heights Fire Department installed nearly 100 smoke alarms in 68 homes, helping 227 people stay safe. Along with smoke alarms, volunteers also handed out fire safety information to families on ways to prevent fires and what to do if there was a fire in their home.
Linda Du Chene has lived in her home for 16 years. She was thrilled to welcome volunteers in to her home and even took notes about home fire safety.
“This has been extremely helpful with today’s economy and the price of smoke detectors,” said Linda. “This was greatly needed. I would have waited to get a new smoke detector if my current detectors weren’t working. I feel so much safer now.”
Since launching our Home Fire Campaign in 2014, the Red Cross has helped to save at least 1,928 lives across the country and installed more than 2.5 million free smoke alarms.
Home fires are so dangerous that they claim more lives in a typical year than all natural disasters combined. But working smoke alarms can cut the risk of dying in a home fire by half. The sooner an alarm alerts you to a fire, the sooner you can get out. This is critical because fire experts say you may have less than two minutes to escape a burning home before it’s too late.
For Kimberly, talking to her family about a fire escape plan has always been important.
“Both my kid’s rooms are in the back of the house and ours is in the front,” said Kimberly. “Ever since they were little, that was something that concerned me. What if there was a fire? What would you do? Where would you go? It’s always been important to me.”
If you would like more information about fire safety or to sign up for free smoke alarms, visit redcross.org/Colorado for more information.