A local American Red Cross chapter plans to install free fire alarms in Cortez and seeks volunteers to help.
The Sound the Alarm event is part of a national effort to reduce fire-related deaths and injuries across the country. This is the first year that Cortez has participated, and it will take place May 11.
According to the Red Cross website, the organization responds to an average of 62,000 disasters every year, most of which are home fires. Every day, the organization reports, seven people die and 36 people are injured from home fires, and home fires cause $7 billion worth of property damage every year.
Many of the casualties occur in homes without fire alarms, the Red Cross reports, and those most impacted are children and the elderly.
In 2014, the Red Cross launched a Home Fire Safety campaign, with the specific goal of reducing fire-related deaths and injuries in the U.S. by 25%.
Tangential to this campaign is Sound the Alarm, which focuses on bringing free smoke alarms to at-risk neighborhoods. Nationally, for the Sound the Alarm event, the Red Cross is looking to install 100,000 free smoke alarms April 27 through May 12.
Cortez was selected as a participant out of a list submitted by the American Red Cross of Western Colorado, which covers 27 counties in the western half of Colorado. Cortez was chosen in the southwest and Clifton as the northwest, said Dick Simmons, a community volunteer leader who lives in the Mancos Valley.
So far, Simmons said, since the campaign began, over 4,000 alarms have been installed in Western and Southwest Colorado.
Last Monday, Simmons and Eric Meyer, executive director of the Western Colorado chapter, met with Cortez Fire Chief Jay Balfour to decide which Cortez neighborhoods were in the greatest need of smoke alarms. They decided to focus their canvassing efforts on the mobile home parks along East Seventh Street by the old high school site.
“I know that there are more areas, not just the mobile home parks, that could benefit from the STA effort, but focusing on this area really provides the most potential for saving lives,” Simmons said.
They aim to install 100 to 150 smoke alarms on May 11. As they will be going door-to-door, and no sign-up is necessary.
On May 11 at 9 a.m., volunteers are invited to gather at the Cortez Fire Department, 31 N. Washington St., where Red Cross representatives will talk about home fire safety and the installation event, before the participants are sent out to canvas in teams of three or four.
“Besides the installation of smoke alarms we will be providing information on how to help make the home safer, and how to be safe should there be a home fire,” Simmons said.
The alarm installations will happen until 2 p.m., at which time volunteers will return to the fire station on Washington Street for a barbecue. For more information or to sign up to volunteer, visit the event website or contact Simmons via email at dick.simmons@redcross.org or by phone at 560-3968.
ealvero@the-journal.com
