SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – Smoke alarms save lives. That was the message Saturday morning in Seminole County.
Firefighters and the American Red Cross came together at a mobile home community to install smoke alarms, something they say is vital particularly ahead of the holidays.
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After a brief training session, Seminole County firefighters and volunteers from the Red Cross went door to door installing smoke alarms at the Tuskawilla Trails community in Winter Springs.
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Resident Carl Hauk invited us inside of his home for the install and he told us he’s forever grateful.
“It’s fantastic, you just can’t imagine how quick these places can go up sometimes,” Hauk said.
Saturday’s event was called the Sound The Alarm program. It’s all part of the national Red Cross campaign aimed at reducing fire deaths and injuries at home.
Red Cross volunteer Elaine Gregory said it’s important to educate families about having an escape plan and knowing that smoke alarms can save lives.
“When a fire hits, especially in a trailer, you’ve got two minutes, two minutes to get out,” Gregory said.
Seminole County firefighters in July said that the occupants of a home on Newcastle Court were able to safely make it out of a fire after being alerted by smoke alarms.
Sharon Gregory with Seminole County Fire knows their value.
“They’re the 10-year lithium battery alarms so, need to replace that battery every year, they still need to be tested,” Gregory said. “Especially at Christmas time, we have extra hazards with lights on Christmas trees and dry Christmas trees, it’s very important to keep them watered. In the winter, too, people use different types of heating mechanisms.”
Gregory shared a conversation with us from a mother in Seminole County whose family escaped a different house fire.
“While I was talking to her, she said, ‘Do you know that six months ago you came and put smoke alarms in my home?’” Gregory recalled. “She said, ‘It was the smoke alarms that woke my son up and got us out of the house.’”
Since 2014, the smoke alarm campaign has helped saved more than a thousand people across Seminole, Orange and Osceola counties from living in a home without the safety devices in working order.
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