Last Saturday (March 19), San Bernardino County Fire personnel, Red Cross volunteers and staff, Morongo Basin CERT, and community members came together to install 135 smoke detectors free of charge while providing home fire safety education to 97 households at two Yucca Valley mobile home parks. Sound the Alarm is a nationwide rally initiative by the Red Cross; this event was organized locally by the San Bernardino County Chapter. This Spring the goal of the campaign is to install 50,000 smoke detectors nationwide, helping decrease fire injuries and deaths. Local firefighters and volunteers visited the Morongo Basin residents offering to install smoke detectors, provide fire safety tips and answer any questions.
Every day, seven people die in home fires, most often in homes without working smoke alarms. That’s why the Red Cross launched the Home Fire Campaign in 2014 which has saved more than 1,200 lives. Through home visits, Red Cross has installed more than 2.2 million free smoke alarms and prepared more than 2.5 million people for home fires by collaborating with fire departments and community partners.
Events like this are an important part of ‘Community Risk Reduction.’ Community Risk Reduction (CRR) as defined in NFPA 1300, Standard on Community Risk Assessment and Community Risk Reduction Plan Development, CRR is a process to identify and prioritize local risks, followed by the integrated and strategic investment of resources to reduce their occurrence and impact.
Thank you to San Bernardino Red Cross, local volunteers, and our amazing residents for hosting such a worthwhile and impactful event.
Looking for more information on the Sound the Alarm program? Visit http://www.soundthealarm.org/socal
