Red Cross, FEMA getting word out about fire safety
Blake Wyatt, a member of FEMA Corps, helped distribute fire safety pamphlets Friday in Washington.
City firefighters rolled through the streets of Washington’s Tylerdale neighborhood Friday to distribute informational pamphlets on fire safety.
FEMA Corps workers joined with the Red Cross to get the word out that free smoke detectors are available to Washington residents.
The household smoke detector is sometimes viewed as a nuisance that loudly objects to burnt pizza or a source of spare batteries when the remote control goes dead.
The American Red Cross is advising homeowners and renters to keep those life-saving alarms in working order. The nonprofit’s national Home Fire Preparedness Campaign came to Charleroi and Washington to spread fire safety tips and to help residents apply for a free smoke detector.
More than 2,400 Americans die every year in home fires, according to nationwide statistics. The Red Cross hopes to reduce the number of deaths and injuries by 25 percent in five years.
Washington and Charleroi were both targeted as high-risk areas with a higher-than-average number of fires. Washington fire Chief Linn Brookman said it’s common for city residents to forgo smoke detectors or sell them for spare change. Absentee landlords are also at fault, he said.
“They don’t follow the rules,” he said of absentee landlords. “They probably have four or five (detectors) in their own house, but they don’t take care of their tenants very well.”
He said the campaign is a “good cause,” and he would like to see at least one smoke detector in every home. Residents can receive as many as three free detectors from the Red Cross, and city firefighters will install them in the coming weeks.
Members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency teamed up with the Red Cross Friday and posted informational pamphlets on about 2,000 doors around Washington. The Red Cross urged residents to keep at least one smoke detector on every level of the house and one in each bedroom.
Red Cross employees said smoke alarms should be replaced every 10 years, and batteries should be checked more frequently.
“It’s recommended to change them every time you change your clocks, so twice a year,” said Kevin Coleman, team leader for the FEMA group that canvassed the Pittsburgh area. “It’s one of those things that people might not have money to spend on batteries or smoke detectors, or they just might not think about it.”
FEMA expected to reach out to 15,000 homes in the greater Pittsburgh area by the end of the day Friday. The Charleroi campaign, held last week, targeted more than 1,300 homes.