The Asheville Fire Department was chosen by the Red Cross as one of only 100 Signature Cities to team up to install smoke alarms and provide education on getting out of your home if there is a fire. The City was chosen to participate in the Sound the Alarm program.
When a fire occurs in your home, it is a race to get out to safety, and a working smoke alarm gives the earliest notification: a head start in that race.
During the May 3 Sound Off kickoff event, the Asheville Fire Department and the Red Cross installed 100 smoke alarms in the 58 homes they were able to enter. All of this was FREE of charge.
If you live in the City of Asheville, you can request a safety visit from the Asheville Fire Department. For a smoke alarm request, visit this link.
Home fires kill seven people every day in the U.S. — most often, in homes without working smoke alarms. To prevent needless tragedies in Asheville, the Red Cross and Asheville Fire Department are rallying 80 local volunteers to install 350 free smoke alarms, as part of a national push of Sound the Alarm events in 300 cities from through May 12.
Sound the Alarm is part of the Home Fire Campaign, which the Red Cross launched in 2014 to reduce fire deaths and injuries. So far, it has reached more than 1.7 million people and saved more than 500 lives nationwide. In the Western North Carolina Chapter, the American Red Cross and local partners have:
- Installed more than 4,245 free smoke alarms
- Made more than 1,573 households safer
- Reached more than 1,715 children through youth preparedness programs
Home fires also account for the majority of disasters that the Red Cross responds to every eight minutes in the United States. To learn more, visit redcross.org.