Akron Mayor Helps Launch Operation Save-A-Life Partnership

Posted on April 22, 2016 by American Red Cross of Northern Ohio

One more family in Akron is now better protected from the dangers of a home fire.

Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan and several members of the Akron Fire Department were joined by Rachel D’Attoma, Executive Director of the Summit, Portage and Medina Counties Chapter of the American Red Cross on Thursday, April 21st to install smoke alarms in the home of Amy Villagomez and her family.

The installation marked the official start of Operation Save-A-Life, a new partnership between the Red Cross and the Akron Fire Department, designed to offer Akron residents free smoke alarms and valuable fire safety information. Interested residents are encouraged to call the Red Cross Smoke Alarm Hotline at 330-535-2030.

The Villagomez family was grateful for the new smoke alarms. The alarms that had been previously installed in their home expired in 2009.

“I had no idea smoke alarms have an expiration date,” said Amy Villagomez, who lives in the home with husband Steve and their two children.

Smoke alarms have a 10 year lifespan.

Mayor Horrigan installed two smoke alarms in the Villagomez home. One, supplied by the Akron Fire Department, is designed for hearing impaired residents. It was installed on a wall in the bedroom of one of the children, who has a hearing impairment. The alarm includes a strobe light when activated.

The mayor also installed a more traditional smoke alarm in a hallway of the home, supplied by the Red Cross. The alarm has a lithium battery designed to last 10 years.

“The importance of having smoke detectors in all of our residents’ homes is vital to safety,” said mayor Horrigan, who was joined by Marilyn Keith, President of Akron City Council and Ward 8 representative. The Villagomez family lives in Ward 8.

Prior to the smoke alarm installations, Mrs. Villagomez was given important fire safety information and assistance in designing a fire escape plan.

“A recent Red Cross study found that many people think they have up to 10 minutes to escape from a burning home,” according to Rachel. “It is closer to two minutes. Smoke alarms save lives.”

Operation Save-A-Life is part of the Red Cross Home Fire Preparedness Campaign, designed to reduce the number of fatalities from home fires by 25% in a five-year time span. Residents in other parts of Northeast Ohio can learn how to obtain free smoke alarms in their counties by logging onto redcross.org/neoosal.

Photo credits: Jim McIntyre/American Red Cross, and Bruce Ford/ City of Akron (with permission)

Akron Fire Fatalities Highlight the Need for Smoke Alarms

Posted on April 18, 2016 by American Red Cross of Northern Ohio

A smoke alarm being installed in an Akron home/Photo credit: Gwen Bochmann/ Red Cross Volunteer

Two people died in Akron early Monday morning in a fire on Fultz Street, and firefighters say there were no working smoke alarms in the home.

The Red Cross and the Akron Fire Department earlier this month announced an initiative meant to prevent home fire fatalities, by offering Akron residents free smoke alarms. Firefighters will install the alarms, and provide residents valuable fire safety information, including how to develop a fire escape plan.

“We are proud to partner with the city to promote this initiative,” said Rachel D’Attoma, Executive Director of the Summit, Portage, and Medina Counties Chapter. “A recent Red Cross study found that many people think that you have up to 10 minutes to exit a burning home. It is closer to two minutes. Smoke alarms can help save lives.”

“The importance of having smoke detectors in all of our residents’ homes is vital to safety,” said City of Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan. The Mayor will assist with this initiative by installing a smoke alarm in the home of an Akron family this week.

“Our goal is to save lives in our community,” said Chief Edward Hiltbrand of the Akron Fire Department. “We must respond by making our residents safer, especially in susceptible communities.”

Akron residents are encouraged to call the Red Cross smoke alarm hotline at 330-535-2030 to make an appointment for a free home fire safety inspection, free smoke alarms, and free installation.

Residents throughout Northeast Ohio can obtain more information about Operation Save-A-Life, the Red Cross fire preparedness campaign, at redcross.org/neoosal.

Prevent and Alleviate: Providing Fire Safety Education to Everyone

Posted on March 16, 2016 by American Red Cross of Northern Ohio

You may think that preventing and alleviating human suffering in the face of emergencies – the two actions our mission charges us to do – is a tall order.

With over 4.5 million residents to educate and assist, it can be a little overwhelming.

And yet, when eating an elephant – take one bite at a time.

The first bite: teaching our young community members more about how to keep themselves (and their families) safe before, during and following a disaster.

We are proud to announce that we have hit our annual goal by teaching the pillowcase project, sponsored by Disney, to 2,892 local school-aged children!

The pillowcase project teaches kids about disasters that can happen here in Northeast Ohio, and what they and their families can do to prepare for and respond during an event. Home fire education is the most prevalent piece of this program, as we respond to an average of three home fires across Northeast Ohio each night.

During the program kids are taught about smoke alarms, what to do when a smoke alarm sounds, knowing exit strategies for each room, creating a family meeting spot and so much more.

But this education isn’t just for the children of our community.

We are dedicated to sharing these safety tips with everyone. That’s the second bite of the elephant.

Through Operation Save-A-Life we are helping families learn more about fire safety as well as providing the tools necessary to put that education into practice, should the time come.

As of March, 2016, we have installed over 8,844 smoke alarms in homes throughout Northeast Ohio.

That’s just 1,156 off from the stretch goal we gave ourselves in June, 2015. Our region currently leads the nation in number of smoke alarms installed.

We are very proud of what we have accomplished. And our dedicated work and planning is paying off. We see it in the success stories of families like this one from last summer, and this one from December.

Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, to the Red Cross workforce who made those numbers happen. Thank you to those who continue to educate, install and provide hope to families and individuals in each of the communities that we serve.

You can eat an elephant – one bite at a time.

Thank you!!

Smoke Alarms Save Lorain Family, Including Several Children

Posted on February 26, 2016 by American Red Cross of Northern Ohio

The home of Nicole King and family

Smoke alarm installed near furnace on December 12, 2015

Second smoke alarm installed on December 12, 2015

Basement furnace in proximity to smoke alarm

Photo credit: Jim McIntyre/American Red Cross

Operation Save-A-Life Lives Up To Its Name x 12

10 young children and two adults escaped a home fire in Lorain, Ohio on December 26, 2015, fleeing from the home on West 17th Street after family members heard the shrill sound of smoke alarms.

The alarms had been installed just two-weeks earlier by Red Cross volunteers and members of the Lorain Fire Department during a Fire Safety Walk. Residents in the targeted neighborhood were offered valuable fire safety information along with free smoke alarms. It’s part of the Red Cross initiative to reduce the number of deaths from home fires by 25%.

The smoke alarms in the W. 17th Street home sounded close to 11:00 PM. Although most of the children were still awake, no one noticed the smoke coming from the heating ducts until they heard the alarms. Nicole King, mother of the children, credited the alarms for alerting her family, and recalled the discussion about having an escape plan. So did nine-year old Nigeria, who helped get his younger siblings out of the house and away from the danger, remembering to “get low and go.” Nicole’s mother was also able to escape unharmed.

Once all family members were accounted for outside the house, Nicole called 9-1-1, and firefighters were able to quickly extinguish the fire, which had started in the basement furnace. While damage to the home was minimal, the furnace was out of commission, and the Red Cross Disaster Team responded by providing the family with funding to pay for hotel rooms.

The 12 lives saved in Lorain are among the 69 lives credited to the Red Cross national Home Fire Campaign, launched in 2014 and modeled after Operation Save-A-Life, an initiative between the Greater Cleveland Chapter of the Red Cross and the city of Cleveland Division of Fire. Since its inception in 1992, more than 160,000 smoke alarms have been installed in homes in the city of Cleveland.

The 2 smoke alarms installed in the home on West 17th Street in Lorain last December are among more than 8,400 alarms that have been installed by the Red Cross and its community partners in the Northeast Ohio Region since July 1st, 2015.

There were no working smoke alarms in the home prior to that.

If you would like a home fire safety inspection, valuable fire safety information and free smoke alarms installed in your home, visit the Northeast Ohio Region Operation Save-A-Life website, and find the link to your county. Or click here for more information on how to volunteer, to help make your community safer.

Update: Kincaids Surpass 1,100 Smoke Alarms Installed

Posted on February 19, 2016 by American Red Cross of Northern Ohio

Earlene and Dick Kincaid with Heidi, their rescue dog Photo credit: Jim McIntyre/American Red Cross

Tuscarawas County Couple Help Create Safer Neighborhoods

Dick and Earlene Kincaid have been American Red Cross volunteers for nearly eight years. They have responded to hurricanes, tornadoes and floods in Texas, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Illinois, New York, New Jersey and Alabama as members of the Red Cross National Disaster Action Team, providing hot meals and comfort to thousands of people made suddenly homeless by extreme weather. Their most recent deployment was to Flint, Michigan in response to the water crisis there.

But the work they’ve done in their own backyard has made the biggest impact in the lives of their neighbors.

The Kincaids have installed more than 1,100 smoke alarms in homes in the Stark County and Muskingum Lakes Chapter since October 2015. In a previous article, posted last December, it was noted that they had installed 750 alarms in fewer than three months. With more than 1,100 installations now to their credit, Dick and Earlene installed more than half the total annual number of smoke alarms for the entire Chapter, in fewer than six months!

Dick wields the drill and installs the alarms while Earlene provides valuable fire safety information to residents. She said, “Most of these people don’t have working smoke alarms, or they don’t have any at all.” The Kincaids work mostly on weekends, when people are more likely to be home. They spend about 15 minutes in each home, installing alarms on each floor. And they average about 100 installations a week.

Not bad for a couple who survived a motorcycle crash in 2007.

“I flew like a bird, but my landing sucked,” Dick says with a grin. Earlene says she rolled better, suffering only a broken shoulder and some scrapes. Dick says he spent 18 days at the Cleveland Clinic, undergoing 5 surgeries to save his leg, and spent another 9 months in a hospital bed in the living room of their home in Magnolia, Ohio.

Dick retired from Timken as a steelworker that same year. Once he got back on his feet, Dick and Earlene Kincaid began their careers as Red Cross volunteers, responding to national disasters and local home fires. But their Operation Save-A-Life efforts are taking up most of their volunteer time now.

“We’ve had people who have had three little kids in a trailer home, and no smoke alarms. They burn so fast,” Dick says. “If we can save any lives at all, that’s good enough.”

Carbon Monoxide Kills, Alarms Save Lives

Posted on February 17, 2016 by American Red Cross of Northern Ohio

Photo credit: Cal Pusateri/American Red Cross Volunteer

Winter has finally decided to show up. With it has come deep snow in most areas of our region, and cold temperatures.

Given the increase in the number of carbon monoxide emergencies during cold snaps (like in this story), we want to remind you to exercise caution when heating your home.

Carbon monoxide is an invisible, odorless and silent killer that, nationally, claims hundreds of lives each year. A threat year round, carbon monoxide poisoning tends to increase when storms and power outages force people to turn to unsafe alternative heat sources such as fuel-burning appliances, gas generators, camp stoves and charcoal grills and use them in confined spaces.

The best way to keep your family safe during this time is to install carbon monoxide alarms and learn how to reduce the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.

“Every home should have at least one carbon monoxide alarm in addition to their smoke alarms,” said Tim O’Toole, Regional Disaster Officer of the Red Cross of Northeast Ohio. “If there is only one carbon monoxide detector, it should be in or near sleeping areas. Both carbon monoxide and smoke alarms are relatively inexpensive and easy-to-maintain devices that have been proven to save lives. There are even models that feature a combined smoke and carbon monoxide alarm.”

Follow these safety recommendations:

Furnaces and other natural gas fired appliances should be serviced once a year.
Install carbon monoxide alarms in central locations on every level of your home and outside sleeping areas (avoid corners where air does not circulate). Test the alarm every month.
Have heating systems (including chimneys and vents) inspected and serviced annually, checking for blockages, corrosion, and partial and complete disconnections.
Never use a generator, grill or camp stove inside a home, garage or basement.
Do not use gas appliances such as ranges, ovens or clothes dryers to heat your home.
Know the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning: headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, sleepiness, and confusion. If you suspect carbon monoxide poisoning, move quickly to a fresh air location, and then call 9-1-1.
Treat the alarm signal as a real emergency each time. If the alarm sounds and you are not experiencing any symptoms described above, press the reset button. If the alarm continues to sound, call the fire department.

Download the Red Cross First Aid App at redcross.org/apps to get access to life-saving information on what to do for common, everyday first aid emergencies.

For more Red Cross fire safety and preparedness information, visit redcross.org/homefires.

Who Bought the Hot Dogs?

Posted on January 20, 2016 by American Red Cross of Northern Ohio

Red Cross Volunteers Treated to Lunch By Anonymous Diner

Responding to a call for action from the Red Cross to support the Martin Luther King Day of Service, more than a dozen volunteers joined Red Cross staff members from the Lake to River Chapter to offer residents of Warren, Niles and Girard fire safety tips and free smoke alarm installations.

Some of those volunteers were thanked in an unexpected, but welcome, way.

They began their day by receiving instructions from Disaster Program Manager, Scott Meeker and Disaster Program Specialist, Kristen Gallagher, and then headed out into the wintry Northeast Ohio weather, braving blowing snow and single-digit temperatures.

Several teams were formed, each visiting the homes of residents who registered with the Red Cross for free fire safety instruction and free smoke alarm installation.

Photo Credit: Cal Pusateri/American Red Cross Volunteer

During their lunch break, three volunteers ate at the Jib Jab Hot Dog Shoppe in Girard.

“They were all wearing Red Cross vests and were talking about the alarms they had installed that morning,” said Karen Conklin, Executive Director of the Red Cross Lake to River Chapter. “When they went to pay the bill, a good Samaritan had already paid it. How cool is that?”

The volunteers, from Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church and Christ Episcopal Church, were joined by Lt. Chuck Eggleston of the Warren Fire Department during the Day of Service in honor of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. They installed 95 smoke alarms in 40 homes, making each neighborhood they entered safer.

If you live in Northeast Ohio, and would like a free fire safety inspection and free smoke alarms installed in your home, visit redcross.org/neoosal.

Red Cross Assisting Dozens Displaced By Apartment Fire

Posted on November 23, 2015 by American Red Cross of Northern Ohio

Photo credit: Jeremy Bayer/American Red Cross

Residents Chased From Their Homes Close to Thanksgiving Holiday

Red Cross workers and volunteers were called for assistance after fire broke out in an apartment building in Geauga County early Monday morning.

45 residents have been affected by the fire, with several seeking assistance for overnight lodging, as temperatures dip to some of the coldest readings of the year.

The Monday morning fire follows another very busy weekend for Red Cross disaster workers, who were called to a dozen home fires, offering immediate financial assistance to more than 50 people for food, lodging, and other immediate needs. Follow-up assistance, such as mental health services and referrals to other agencies will also be provided.

It was a similar story the weekend before, with a like number of people chased from their homes by fire, and receiving Red Cross assistance.

There is much to be thankful for: no fatalities were reported.

The American Red Cross is attempting to reduce home fire fatalities through Operation Save-A-Life. With the help of local fire departments and other community partners, the Red Cross offers free smoke alarms, in many neighborhoods going door-to-door installing the alarms, and offering residents valuable fire safety information.

Photo credit: Cal Pusateri/American Red Cross Volunteer

For more information or to schedule a free fire safety inspection for your home, visit the Operation Save-A-Life website.

North Akron Residents Better Protected From Home Fires

Posted on November 5, 2015 by American Red Cross of Northern Ohio

Free Smoke Alarms Installed in Dozens of Homes

Akron Fire Department personnel joined Red Cross volunteers and staff on Wednesday, November 4th to install more than 150 free smoke alarms in nearly 60 homes in North Akron.

The Akron Fire Safety Walk was similar to efforts recently undertaken in Barberton, Canton and Madison Township. The neighborhood was pre-canvassed, meaning residents were notified in advance that they’d have the opportunity to have qualified personnel perform a fire safety inspection in their homes, and where necessary, have smoke alarms installed free of charge.

“We installed 156 alarms in the North Akron area with help from the Akron Fire Department,” said Rachel D’Attoma, Executive Director of the American Red Cross Summit, Portage and Medina Counties Chapter. “In addition, many of our board members and corporate partners were on site to help as well. Making this whole neighborhood safer was a true community effort.”

Regional Disaster Officer Tim O’Toole Installs Smoke alarm

Regional Disaster Officer Tim O’Toole, Chapter Executive Director Rachel D’Attoma, and Disaster Program Manager Debbie Chitester

Fire Safety Walk Volunteers

Preparing to Go Door-To-Door

Photo Credit: Gwen Bochman/American Red Cross Volunteer

Volunteers who donated their time and expertise included representatives from Bober, Markey, Fedorovich, FedEx, Dominion, Ruhlin and BDO, in addition to personnel from the police departments of the city of Akron and the University of Akron.

We call the effort to install smoke alarms in areas most vulnerable to home fires Operation Save-A-Life. The goal is to reduce the number of fatalities from home fires nationwide by 25% over a five year period.

Another Fire Safety Walk is planned next Tuesday, November 10th in Cuyahoga Falls. But residents of Summit County don’t have to wait until their neighborhood is targeted for an Operation Save-A-Life event. They can call the Smoke Alarm Hotline at 330-535-2030 to schedule an appointment for a for a free fire safety inspection and free smoke alarms where needed.

Dozens of Residents Receive Red Cross Assistance Following Fires

Posted on November 2, 2015 by American Red Cross of Northern Ohio

Disaster Workers Busy As Time Change Kicks-in

Discarded Smoke Alarms
Photo credit: Jim McIntyre/American Red Cross

On a weekend when fire officials joined the Red Cross in urging residents to test their smoke alarms, more than a dozen home fires in the Northeast Ohio Region affected more than 50 residents who received Red Cross assistance.

There were no injuries reported.

“Our teams were incredibly busy assisting families throughout the entire region,” said Renee Palagyi, Senior Program Manager for Disaster Services. The Red Cross assisted residents affected by home fires that occurred in eight counties from Friday, October 30 through early Monday morning, November 2, 2015. Among them was a fire in East Cleveland that displaced a family of 12, and a duplex fire in Elyria that chased two families from their homes on Sunday afternoon.

The Red Cross provided financial assistance totaling almost $11,000 to the affected residents. The money is meant to provide lodging, food, clothing, and to meet any other needs that arise as a result of the fires.”We give our clients a start on their road to recovery,” Renee said. “They are free to spend the money in whatever ways necessary for them to get back on their feet.”

The generosity of donors to the American Red Cross makes such financial assistance possible. Donors can help families recover from disasters, both big and small, by logging onto the Red Cross website, or by calling 1-800-RED CROSS. A donation of $10 can be made by texting the words “RED CROSS” to 90999. Red Cross Disaster Relief helps people affected by disasters such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, wildfires and tornadoes, as well as home fires.

The American Red Cross has been working hard to help families protect themselves from home fires through Operation Save-A-Life. Residents can request a free home inspection, and will receive free smoke alarms if they are needed. Volunteers install the alarms, and offer helpful fire prevention information.

Residents of Cleveland can call the 24-hour Operation Save-A-Life hotline at 216-361-5535. Summit County residents can call 330-535-2030. Residents throughout Northeast Ohio can get information by logging onto the local Red Cross website.

NOHredcross

American Red Cross of Northern Ohio Region

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