Mar 13, 2019 2 min read

(Uniontown, PA) – A small group of Red Cross staff and volunteers will be going door-to-door on South Mt. Vernon, Station and Eighth Streets in Uniontown to educate residents on the importance of home fire safety, help them to create home fire escape plans, and to install free smoke alarms where none exist or where existing ones have failed. This event will occur this Saturday, March 16, from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.

“Recently, this neighborhood experienced a true tragedy when a home fire turned fatal,” noted Dan Tobin, American Red Cross Greater Pennsylvania Region Director of Marketing and Communications. “Unfortunately, here in Pennsylvania, we witnessed a high number of fatal fires. Our goal is to provide residents with the tools they need to hopefully reduce the risk of fire and, should one occur, the tools and knowledge to safely evacuate the burning building.”

Since 2014, the American Red Cross has been installing free smoke alarms in communities throughout the country. Last fall, the Red Cross hit a major milestone when we installed our one millionth alarm!

Tobin added, “Having working smoke alarms can increase your chances of making it to safety by over 50%. We often hear from people who say, ‘I already have smoke alarms.’ Yet, when you ask them, they tell you the smoke alarms are 20 or 30 years old. Most people don’t realize that smoke alarms are only able to detect smoke for around 10 years! It’s important that people not only have smoke alarms, but that they have smoke alarms that work and are not outdated.”