AMERICAN RED CROSS KICKS OFF "SOUND THE ALARM" EVENT

JACKSON, Tn.- The American Red Cross kicked off the national “Sound The Alarm” event this weekend! The organization teamed up with the Fire Department and Kohl's department store to install smoke alarms in east Jackson.

“Today, we're going out into a community just south of Lane College here in Jackson. and we've already pre-prep the area for it. We went out last week and put door hangers on 100% of the homes saying, we will be here next Saturday to install smoke detectors. then we put up street signs wherever we could, saying we will be in your neighborhood Saturday for free smoke detectors,” says Home Fire Campaign Coordinator Val Deutsch

Executive director David Hicks explains how they hope to educate the community along the way.

“We'll also have an educational piece to it. We'll be sharing with the families.. do they have an escape plan for their home in case they were to wake up in the middle of the night and realize a fire is taking place or for that matter, you know, get home during the day and realize and discover a fire. and then also, do they have a rally point where they can make sure that all the members of their family are safe as they escape a fire?”

After being a volunteer for over 30 years, Loran Newton realizes how important it is to have a smoke alarm in your home.

“You know, people don't realize how they can save their own lives by having alarms and the reason we're going to air we're going in is because we had a fire fatality, but no alarms in our house. So the Red Cross offers the opportunity for free smoke alarms, and we put them in for you.”

The American Red Cross team plans to install more smoke alarms in west Tennessee throughout the year. If you are interested in getting a smoke alarm in your home or volunteering for the Red Cross, please visit soundthealarm.org/tennessee.