March 6, 2019- It’s time to spring forward when daylight saving time starts this Sunday, March 10. As people TURN their clocks forward one hour, the American Red Cross reminds everyone to TEST their smoke alarms.

This weekend is also a good time for everyone to take these lifesaving steps to help prepare households for home fires, the nation’s most frequent disaster:

• Check smoke alarms and replace batteries if needed. Working smoke alarms cut the risk of dying in a home fire by half. Test smoke alarms once a month. Change the batteries at least once a year, if your model requires it. Place smoke alarms on every level of your home, including inside and outside bedrooms, and sleeping areas.
• Create and practice your home fire escape plan. Fire experts agree that people may have as little as two minutes to escape a burning home before it’s too late. This weekend, create a home fire escape plan with your household and practice it until everyone can escape in less than two minutes. Escape plans should include at least two ways to escape from every room and a meeting spot at a safe distance away from your home, such as your neighbor’s home or landmark like a specific tree in your front yard, where everyone knows where to meet.

HOME FIRE CAMPAIGN SAVING LIVES

Each year, the Red Cross responds to more than 62,000 disasters—the vast majority of which are home fires. Every day, seven people die in home fires, and most tragedies occur in homes without working smoke alarms. That’s why the Red Cross launched the Home Fire Campaign with community partners in 2014 to reduce needless deaths and injuries.

So far, the Home Fire Campaign has reached more than 1.7 million people and is credited with saving more than 500 lives across the country. The campaign’s volunteers and partners have also:

• Installed more than 1.5 million free smoke alarms
• Reached more than 1.3 million children through youth preparedness programs
• Made more than 660,000 households safer from the threat of home fires

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HOME FIRE CAMPAIGN IN NORTHEAST OHIO

Here in Northeast Ohio, we have a long and successful history with the Sound the Alarm campaign. The program, then named Operation Save-A-Life began in 1992 when the Greater Cleveland Chapter Executive Director Steve Bullock teamed up with the City of Cleveland, after a string of fatal home fires across the city, to reduce injuries and deaths due to home fires by providing residents in at-risk neighborhoods with fire safety education and free smoke alarms and installations.

Today, the Red Cross of Northeast Ohio responds to roughly three home fires every 24 hours across the region.

Last year, as part of the campaign, the Red Cross in Northeast Ohio:

• Installed 17,546 free smoke alarms throughout the region
• Reached more than 4,400 area youth through youth preparedness programs
• Made more than 6,200 households safer

You can visit redcross.org/homefires for free resources and to learn more about how to protect your family and your home from fire, or contact your local Red Cross chapter in Northeast Ohio to find out about smoke alarm installation events in their community.

The Red Cross depends on the generous support of the American public to fulfill its humanitarian mission. If you would like to support our lifesaving work, please consider volunteering or making a donation today by visiting redcross.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS or texting the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 gift.