Red Cross installing smoke detectors in homes for free
By Steve Herring
Published in News on June 26, 2016 1:45 AM
Full Size
News-Argus/STEVE HERRING
Wanda Faison, center, hands the base ring for a smoke detector to Dean Green. At right is Green's wife, Jane. The Greens, representing the Goldsboro Elks Lodge, were among volunteers helping the Red Cross install free smoke detectors in local homes Saturday morning.
Full Size
News-Argus/STEVE HERRING
Goldsboro Fire Marshal John Morton explains how to install and test smoke detectors Saturday morning before volunteers set out to install the free detectors in local homes. The project is sponsored by the American Red Cross.
Wanda Faison and her husband, Donnie, had been talking about the need to have smoke alarms installed in the home they moved into on Friday.
So when Red Cross volunteers arrived at her door Saturday morning offering not just smoke alarms, but free ones, she was excited.
"I think it is excellent that we didn't have any, and you guys came and installed them so I am loving it -- especially since it is free," Mrs. Faison said. "I think it is real good thing just for you guys to take your time out and install smoke detectors in people's houses.
"When they said the word free, it was right down my line. But I thought it was fantastic."
Volunteers from the Red Cross, Goldsboro Elks Lodge, New Life Baptist Church and Goldsboro Fire Stations 3 and 4 met at the Red Cross Chapter House on North George Street at 9 a.m. Saturday for biscuits and instructions before setting off across the city to install the smoke detectors.
The Elks Lodge partnered with the Red Cross by donating $2,000 through the Elks National Foundation grant program. It also gave $500 each to five other organizations.
"We basically take requests from our members to help certain organizations," said lodge member Tonya Jarrett. "Then we contact them and see what kind of programs they have going on that might work within the guidelines of our programs, then submit application grants through those."
That is how the lodge became involved with the smoke detector initiative, she said.
The Red Cross has been conducting the program for about two years across the state, said Red Cross staffer Kathy Jones.
"Our (statewide) goal was 3,500 alarms this past year, which we reached," she said. "Our goal for this upcoming year is 5,000. We go door to door and ask people if they have smoke alarms, and if they don't, we can install them free of charge.
"We work with the state fire marshal's office and our local fire departments and fire marshals to get them installed. It is all about saving lives."
Thus far 385 smoke detectors have been installed in Wayne County.
Saturday's goal was another 100 to 150.
"We work with the fire marshal to find areas with older homes that don't have wired alarms or low-income areas that can't afford alarms, or just don't know to have them," Ms. Jones said. "But we do also do appointment-based smoke alarm installations. If people don't have an alarm they can either call us and we will make an appointment and send a team out to install it.
"When we go to event we have sign-up sheets where people can sign up, and then we will go out."
For more information, call the chapter house at 919-735-7201.
The alarms have 10-year lithium batteries and are purchased through a grant from the N.C. State Fire Marshal Office.
Goldsboro Fire Marshal John Morton briefed the volunteers on how to install and test the smoke detectors.
According to Red Cross data, 60 percent of all fire fatalities occur in homes that do not have working smoke alarms.
"The thing is people think they are going to wake up when they hear the fire, but smoke is a silent killer and carbon monoxide," he said. "It don't take but a few inhales of gases and carbon monoxide, and you are out.
"You need something to wake you up. You need something to wake your children up. A smoke detector gives you a whole lot better chance to get out of your house. And you need to remove those obstacles in your house to getting out."
Smoke detectors more than 10 years old may not work and should be replaced, Morton said.