Red Cross Urges Everyone to Test Smoke Alarms when Turning Clocks this Weekend

LONGVIEW-TYLER , TX (March 7, 2019) —The American Red Cross Serving East Texas urges all households to test their smoke alarms, replace alarm batteries if needed and practice home fire escape plans when turning their clocks forward on Sunday, March 10. Home fires are the nation’s most frequent disaster and kill seven people each day—often in homes that don’t have working smoke alarms.

For those families who don’t have smoke alarms, the Red Cross will install them free of charge while also coaching residents through home fire safety planning as part of the Sound the Alarm campaign. For more information or to request free smoke alarms, call 903-581-7981 or 903-753-2091 or visit www.SoundTheAlarm.org/NorthTexas.

THE CAMPAIGN TO #ENDHOMEFIRES

Sound the Alarm is part of the Red Cross Home Fire Campaign, which launched in 2014 to reduce fire deaths and injuries. To date, the Red Cross and its partners have installed more than 1.5 million free smoke alarms and helped save re than 520 lives nationwide in homes that received free alarms and subsequently suffered a fire.

In 2018, the North Texas Red Cross and our partners:

Installed nearly 8,000 free smoke alarms

Made more than 3,100 households safer through smoke alarm installations and home fire safety education

Reached more than 2,400 children through youth preparedness programs

This work is made possible thanks to generous financial donations from national partners AirBNB; Delta; Nissan; and Farmers Insurance; and regional partners BJ Coffman; Lehigh Hanson, Inc.; State Farm; Capital One; Jane and Willis Rector; Kaye and Leland Hodges; Holly McCoy; Gwen Echols; and Jim and Teresa Hubbard.