PARMA, Ohio — No one can refute the importance of having working smoke detectors in your home. But each year, we cover stories about fatal fires where working smoke detectors didn’t exist in the home.
A group of volunteers is working to fix that as part of a national campaign run by the American Red Cross. The program is called “Sound the Alarm” with the goal of installing as many as 100,000 smoke alarms across the country, including 3,000 right here in Northeast Ohio.
The official kickoff for the campaign will be on April 27, but the local group is getting an early start Tuesday.
A few dozen volunteers will be trained to install smoke detectors before they head out across the neighborhood to install smoke alarms and help residents create fire escape plans. They’ll be working alongside the Parma Fire Department to ensure they’re doing the job properly.
The national “Sound the alarm program” started in 2014, growing from an initiative that started in Cleveland in 1992. To date, Northeast Ohio volunteers have installed over 200,000 smoke alarms in northeast Ohio.
For this years campaign, volunteers are still needed. You can volunteer for “Sound the Alarm” or get help requesting an alarm installation by visiting soundthealarm.org/NEO for more information.