Lives Saved in Fayette County Thanks to Home Fire Campaign

It’s a fact: Early warning from a working smoke alarm can cut the risk of death by home fire in half.

For one Fayette county family, that statistic hits close to home. Late one night in early December, Cassie Bell and her family woke to the shrill sound of their smoke alarms warning them of danger.
Alerted by the alarm, Bell went downstairs to find her kitchen filled with smoke and a fire burning from the toaster. The family’s cats had jumped on the toaster, triggering it to heat up and catch fire to mail that had fallen on top of it.

The Bell Family

“I was able to put out the fire with a throw blanket,” said Bell. “I can only imagine if we had not had those smoke detectors installed and the fire given the opportunity to grow.”

Just a year earlier, Red Cross volunteers and local firefighters had visited the Bell home to install free smoke alarms as part of our Home Fire Campaign. The Home Fire Campaign was launched in 2014 in an effort to reduce the number of lives lost to home fires by installing free smoke alarms and providing fire safety education in at-risk neighborhoods.

Volunteers helped the Bell family create an escape plan and review a home fire safety checklist. Before their visit, the family did not have working smoke alarms. Bell had been told of the free smoke alarm program by a former fire department paramedic after a local fire fatality. Determined to make her home safe for herself and her daughters, Bell scheduled an appointment with the Lexington Fire Department, a partner of the Red Cross, to have them installed.

“I 100 percent know those alarms waking us up saved my house and my family,” Bell said. “We live on a very limited budget, and I know if we had to have made those expenses, I might have made the wrong decision in [not] getting them installed. Thankfully, the American Red Cross, the fire department and kind individuals who donated took that worry off our plate.”

Over 500 lives have been saved in the United States since the start of our Home Fire Campaign, including 57 lives in Kentucky and Southern Indiana.

Join us in making our community safer across Kentucky and Southern Indiana at soundthealarm.org, or visit redcross.org/givingday to help us help the families who have been impacted by a home fire or other disaster.