On Friday, volunteers installed alarms and educated residents on home fire safety as part of the Northwest Ohio chapter of the American Red Cross' Sound the Alarm program.
Smoke alarms were put in at the Chateau Estates and Arrowhead Lake Mobile Parks, both in Swanton; Reynolds Senior Village on Reynolds Road; and Maurer Mobile Home Park in Bowling Green.
If a family is in need of a smoke detector, they can set up an appointment with the Red Cross by calling 844-207-4509.
While smoke installations and family preparation for fires will be a year-round initiative, the Sound the Alarm campaign will be an annual Spring effort to increase awareness and safety across northwest Ohio.
"Our program saved two lives in October of 2018, marking the first two documented saves in NW Ohio but over 580 nationally," said Rachel Hepner-Zawodny, Executive Director of the Northwest Ohio chapter of the American Red Cross. "The program works. Period."
Across Northwest Ohio, the American Red Cross responds to a home fire, on average, every 19 hours.
Because of this staggering statistic, the Red Cross established Sound the Alarm. Part of a national initiative, Sound the Alarm looks to reduce injuries and deaths due to home fires by 25 percent by the year 2020.
