On Saturday, November 14, the American Red Cross of East Tennessee, the Tennessee State Fire Marshal’s Office and Crossville Fire Department, along with community volunteers will install smoke alarms and teach people fire safety.

Nationally, seven times a day someone dies in a home fire. Countless others suffer injuries. To combat these tragic statistics, the Red Cross and the State Fire Marshal’s Office (SFMO) have developed programs to prevent and reduce home fire deaths in Tennessee.
Using grant funds awarded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the SFMO launched its “Get Alarmed, Tennessee!” program in November 2012. Through the program, smoke alarms are distributed to fire departments to be installed in at-risk homes across the state. While in the home, the installers explain key fire safety tips to residents and encourage them to create a home fire escape plan. So far, more than 85,000 free smoke alarms have been distributed across the state and the lives of 105 Tennesseans have been saved as a result of “Get Alarmed” alarms.
The Red Cross Home Fire Preparedness Campaign is happening all over the country and involves Red Cross workers joining with local fire departments and community groups to visit neighborhoods at high risk for fires. Those visits include educating people about fire safety through door-to-door visits and installation of smoke alarms in some of these neighborhoods.
Last year, the Red Cross responded to over 400 home fires in East Tennessee alone.
“Installing smoke alarms cuts the risk of someone dying from a home fire in half, so we’re joining with groups from across our community to install smoke alarms,” said Michelle Hankes, Executive Director of the American Red Cross of East Tennessee. “We also will be teaching people how to be safe from home fire.”

“This is a valuable opportunity to work directly with residents and educate them on fire prevention.” Said Chris South, Deputy Chief, Crossville Fire Department. “We’re sharing tools to make their homes safer for themselves and their entire family.”
For more information about the November 14th event, contact Taylor Kendra at 865-584-2999 or Deputy Fire Chief Chris South at 931-484-6144.

Red Cross Home Fire Campaign sponsors include Allstate and Memorial Foundation.

For more information on Get Alarmed, visit https://www.tn.gov/commerce/article/fire-get-alarmed.