CLEARFIELD – Residents in Clearfield Borough will be a little safer following “Sound the Alarm.”
At Thursday’s Clearfield Borough Council work session, Beth Sawyer of the American Red Cross presented certificates of appreciation to the council and to the Clearfield Borough Volunteer Fire Department.
Sawyer said on April 28, about 84 volunteers worked to install 501 smoke detectors and replaced 28 batteries in 135 homes. She said the volunteers also handed out information about fire prevention while participating in the event.
Sawyer said the program had a follow-up and installed more smoke detectors, bringing the final total to 541 smoke detectors installed and replaced a total of 31 batteries.
“I really want to thank (Deputy Fire Chief) Justin Worley and (Borough Operations Manager) Leslie Stott for helping to make the community safer,” Sawyer said.
Stott additionally thanked Sawyer and the Red Cross for their hard work in making the program so easy.
“You guys did most of the work, so we really didn’t have much more to do,” Stott said.
Worley was absent from the meeting, but the certificate was accepted on his behalf by Fire Chief Todd Kling.
Sawyer said the program is still ongoing and anyone who needs smoke detectors can call 814-913-3027.
According to previously published GANT News articles, the “Sound The Alarm” campaign will run from April 28-May 13. The program was started in 2014 as part of the “Home Fire” campaign and it is designed to improve the odds of surviving a house fire.
According to the Red Cross Web site, seven people die in home fires every day. Most of the fatalities occur in homes that lack working smoke alarms.
Many of these victims are children and the elderly disproportionately lose their lives. The American Red Cross wants to improve the odds and save lives- that’s why they launched the Home Fire Campaign in 2014.
During the “Sound The Alarm” campaign, volunteers canvass at-risk neighborhoods, install free smoke alarms, replace batteries in existing alarms and provide fire prevention and safety information to residents.
According to the Web site, more than 1 million smoke alarms have been installed.
