WHITE CITY, Ore.– The Red Cross teamed up with Jackson County Fire District 3 for the Sound the Alarm event on April 6.
Firefighters and Red Cross volunteers spent the afternoon installing free smoke alarms in homes throughout White City as a part of the national Red Cross Home Fire campaign. Claire Foster-Dow, a Senior Disaster Program Manager for the Red Cross, says about seven people die every day because of house fires. She says helping her community be more prepared with these smoke alarms strikes deeply with her.
“I was raised by a firefighter, my father was a Battalion Chief, and so I grew up learning about fire safety and home fires,” Foster-Dow said. “You know, we have a vague understanding of ‘yeah, home fires happen’, but you never think it’s going to happen to you”.
Foster-Dow says each installation only takes about 20 minutes. She says the Red Cross made over 100 appointments, but volunteers also went door to door in hopes of installing over 300 fire alarms. One homeowner, Jackie Peyton, says she was all for the event when she heard about it from the Red Cross.
“This is awesome, I’m not kidding you,” Peyton said, “My daughter came over last night and we were just talking about how we’re going to have to replace all of this because I need to get them and so I wanted to make sure that, you know, they’re all up to par”.
Peyton says she couldn’t be more thankful, and she feels safer in her home.
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