Red Cross aims to reduce home fires

• The Red Cross recently developed the Red Cross Home Fire Preparedness Campaign.
• Since October, the Red Cross North Region installed 2,600 smoke alarms in high fire-risk cities.
• In July, a team of volunteers canvassed New Brunswick and installed 106 smoke alarms in one day.
• In the state, the Red Cross responds to a fire approximately three times a day.

The 2012 American Red Cross reorganization allowed the more than 130-year-old humanitarian organization to “look at our core missions and expand,” said Mathieu Nelessen, divisional vice president for the Northeast.

The organization’s recently developed Red Cross Home Fire Preparedness Campaign is one example of new intitiatives developed as the organization looks at how it serves the community, and how it can build upon its core program services.

“We are responding to a disaster every eight minutes, and more than 70 percent of those are fires in single-family houses,” Nelessen said, adding that this equates to the Red Cross responding to a fire approximately three times a day. “So, let’s think about designing a program in a preparedness phase that addresses that. ... The home fire prevention program is a wonderful example of us saying, ‘Hey this is the work that the Red Cross and volunteers are doing multiple times a day.’ ”

In October, the Red Cross, through its Disaster Cycle Services arm, launched a nationwide campaign to reduce the number of home fire-related fatalities and injuries by 25 percent over the next five years, Nelessen said. Partnering with municipalities and fire departments in high fire-risk cities across the region, the Red Cross aims to help bring fire safety information and free smoke alarm installations to thousands of families across the northern half of the state.

According to Diane Concannon, chief communications chair of the North Jersey Region, the Red Cross is working with municipalities, fire departments, fire department unions, OEMs and local organizations. Canvassing neighborhoods, volunteers and fire officials knock on doors and install free smoke alarms.

“Most of the time, the fire department and the Red Cross volunteers will educate the family about fires and fire escape plans and the importance of those. And we provide materials about fire safety for the home,” she said. “We are working together with the cities on partnerships and trying to target areas where we see a lot of home fire response and fatalities. That lets us know there may not be smoke alarms in homes. It has been quite productive.”

On July 11, the Red Cross North Jersey Region, along with members of the New Brunswick Fire Department and SilverLine by Andersen, went door-to-door in the city in the Remsen Avenue neighborhood as part of the Red Cross Home Fire Preparedness Campaign. The volunteers installed 106 smoke alarms and reached more than 400 homes with fire safety information.

“We are pleased to be teaming up with the City of New Brunswick and the New Brunswick Fire Department to help increase awareness about the importance of fire safety,” said Steven Sarinelli, regional disaster officer, Red Cross North Jersey Region. “I encourage all households to make fire safety a priority by testing their smoke alarms and practicing their family’s fire escape plan.”

Since the launch of the campaign, the Red Cross North Region and its community partners have canvassed thousands of homes and installed more than 2,600 smoke alarms in high fire-risk cities including East Orange, Perth Amboy, Jersey City, Orange, Linden, Irvington, Paterson, Trenton, Clifton and New Brunswick. Passaic and Newark are next on the list, Concannon said.

Staff Writer Cheryl Makin: 732-565-7256; cmakin@mycentraljersey.com