By Stephanie Dunn Ashley
If you have never experienced a home fire, you are fortunate! While I have not had a home fire personally, I have seen my fair share. Let me tell you what sticks with me the most — the smell of smoke, the panic on peoples’ faces, the fear of not knowing whether all your family members made it out. These things are not easily erased from memory, and no matter how many fires I have seen through my roles with Cos Cob Fire Police Patrol and the American Red Cross, I will never become numb to how devastating home fires can be.
October is Fire Prevention Month. I invite you to take time and action to make sure our homes are prepared in case of fire — and how we can reduce the risk of home fires.
The first line of defense is to have working smoke alarms installed correctly throughout your home. You should have smoke alarms installed in every bedroom, outside of each separate sleeping area (like in a hallway), and on each level of the home (including the basement). Although it may seem counterintuitive, you will also want to be sure a smoke alarm is installed adjacent to the kitchen instead of inside the kitchen where normal cooking activity can trigger a false alarm. Cooking is one of the most common causes of home fires, so your own personal vigilance while whipping up dinner is important, too.
Be sure to test your smoke alarms once every month to make sure they are working and so that you can recognize the sounds they will make if smoke is detected. Newer alarms tend to have non-replaceable batteries, which last 10 years. You should replace all smoke alarms when they are 10 years old even if the battery still appears to be working.
If you or someone in your household has sensory or physical disabilities, make sure you have smoke alarms that meet those needs as well. For example, there are special bed shaker alarms as well as strobe alarms that can be used if someone is deaf or hard of hearing.
One of the programs which I am incredibly proud of through the Red Cross is our Home Fire Campaign, which offers free smoke alarms (including bed shaker and strobe alarms) to anyone who needs one. Our dedicated team of volunteers goes out every week to complete these requests, not only installing free smoke alarms but also checking old smoke alarms and providing fire safety education to household residents. If you need a smoke alarm in your home (or if you want to volunteer to help install these smoke alarms), visit www.soundthealarm.org/mnyn for more information.
You should also know what types of behaviors most often lead to home fires. Aside from cooking, other leading causes of home fires are heating (such as chimney or flue fires and using a space heater too close to combustible items like curtains, clothes and furniture), electrical equipment (such as overloading an extension cord), or carelessness with smoking materials (like cigarettes, cigars and joints), and candles. Recently, we have also seen a troubling increase from lithium-ion battery fires from e-bikes and scooters.
As proud of our fire department and our Red Cross disaster responders as I am, it is my most sincere hope that you never need to use the help they provide day in and day out. I would much rather see you at a Home Fire Campaign installation or at our annual Safety Town program that we hold every June for rising kindergarteners and first graders.
It is wonderful to know that there are people in our beloved community who are ready to jump into action to help at a moment’s notice, but it is even better to take steps to prepare your home before you need the help at all. So, take a few minutes this October and make sure your smoke alarms are working for you. We will be out in the community to share information about our Home Fire Campaign on October 6th at the Cos Cob Fire Station Open House from 10am to 2pm and on October 10th at the Greenwich Public Library from 10am to 2pm – come say hi!
Stephanie Dunn Ashley, Chief Executive Officer, American Red Cross, Metro New York North Chapter.
