The National Manufactured Home Owners Association’s (NMHOA) continuing partnership with the American Red Cross brings great news this month. NMHOA’s email blast reports the success of the the Red Cross’ Home Fire Campaign, credited with saving nearly 70 lives.
NMHOA has invited all ROCs to participate in this same program. It allows your ROC to have smoke detectors installed in the homes of anyone who wants one for free. All you have to do is line up a few volunteers to be trained to install them. Click here to learn more about the program.
Read on to see what NMHOA is reporting about the program’s success:
NMHOA is working with the American Red Cross on an outreach, education, and installation program to ensure manufactured homes have smoke detectors installed. Here are excerpts from the latest update from the Red Cross:
“As of February 17, we can document 69 lives saved through the Home Fire Campaign – due to three separate fires in which the work of our coalition made all the difference.
Lorain, OH – 12 lives were saved, including ten children – ranging in age from eight months old to 11 years old, who had gathered to celebrate the Christmas Holiday, but their furnace caught fire. However, the mother reported that she and the family knew exactly what to do – escape the home quickly, then call 911. The smoke made breathing hard, but her eldest child knew to “Get Low and Go!” He was instrumental in helping several of the younger children get out of the home safely. Once outside, with everyone accounted for, they called 911. The smoke alarms had been installed just two weeks earlier when Red Cross Volunteers and the Lorain City Fire Department knocked on the door and found no working smoke alarms. The firefighters and Red Crossers also took time to educate the whole family on fire safety.
The mother stated that the alarming smoke alarms were the reason that her and her family were able to escape without harm and that the discussion on fire safety helped her and her children to know exactly what to do when smoke started filling the home.
Fort Dodge, IA – four lives were saved (including two children ages seven and 10)
On January 25, 2016 at 10:00 pm, fire broke out in a home in Fort Dodge, IA. A family of four (including two children) were asleep. The mother heard a popping sound and heard the smoke alarms going off. When she went into her ten-year-old daughter’s room, she saw that the entire wall was on fire. The mother went into action. She remembers shouting, “Fire! Fire!” Let’s get out!” She quickly gathered her family and ran across the street to their pre-arranged Family Meeting Place and dialed 911. This family knew exactly what to do because three months earlier, Red Cross volunteers had knocked on their door and conducted an In-Home Visit as part of the Home Fire Campaign. During the visit, the team installed two smoke alarms, reviewed the fire safety checklist and developed a fire escape plan. In a recent interview, the mother stated, “Thank you for everything that the fire department did and for the Red Cross. The smoke detectors saved our lives.”
St. Louis, MO – five residents’ lives were saved (including three children, age seven, 10 and 14)
The last of these three stories begins with tragedy: On November 22, 2015, a fatal house fire claimed the lives of three young children in the North City area of St. Louis, MO. There were no working smoke alarms in the home at the time of the fire. Two days later, the St. Louis Fire Department went door-to-door in the surrounding neighborhood to ensure that all homes had working smoke alarms and that families had escape plans. Red Cross provided the smoke alarms and educational materials, and our mass care volunteers canteened.
On February 6, 2016 at 2:30 am a home fire broke out in another home on that very same block while members of the family were asleep. The mother woke her husband up to investigate when she heard a sizzling sound and smelled something strange. At first, they found nothing wrong. When the smell didn’t go away, he checked again. He told us that he walked up the stairs and opened the door to the attic. In his words, “I saw fire all over the place.” He ran back downstairs and told his wife they needed to get the kids out of the house as soon as possible. Once the entire family was safely out, they dialed 911. In this case, education was the key. Even before the fire in the attic set off the smoke alarms on the floor below, the family took action because they knew they didn’t have much time to escape.
The hard work of our employees and volunteers in the field, along with our coalition of fire departments and other organizations, is really paying off. From the start of the program through the end of January, our coalition has installed 264,000 smoke alarms in people’s homes, serving 333,000 residents. We’ve reached 443,000 kids with fire safety information in schools and after schools.
And now we can say that, together, we’ve saved 69 lives.
To everyone who gave up nights and weekends, who felt a knot in their stomach as they looked at all that they needed to do for the Home Fire Campaign along with everything else, and who embraced it all just the same—thank you. It’s working.”