Red Cross Helps Louisville Family Prepare with Bedside Smoke Alarms

“Alright, we’re going to practice,” says Clair, a Disaster Program Manager for the Louisville Area Chapter Red Cross. She stands in the hallway of the Mansfield’s home, poised beneath one of the smoke alarms Red Cross volunteers had installed just a few weeks before.

In their rooms, Gabriella Mansfield, 8, and Estfeanie Mansfield, 10, giggle and nod. A sign language interpreter translates for Estfeanie and her mother, Sharonda Mansfield, who are both deaf, as they prepare to practice their fire escape plan for the first time.

Then, the smoke alarm sounds and triggers the bedside alarms to flash and vibrate in the sleeping spaces. Clair and the interpreter both sign in time to the sound of the smoke alarm as the girls and their mother quickly leave the house and race to get outside to their meeting spot.

Gabriella and Estfeanie creating a fire escape plan with Clair

Sharonda and three of her four children are deaf, and did not have working smoke alarms in their home. Working smoke alarms can cut the risk of dying in a home fire nearly in half. But those who are deaf or hard of hearing cannot depend on the sound of a regular smoke alarm to alert them to a fire. The Kentucky Red Cross is working to provide bedside smoke alarms for those who are deaf or hard of hearing: these smoke alarms have strobe lights and bed shakers to help alert residents in case of a fire. That’s why Sharonda reached out to the Red Cross through the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (KCDHH).

“The younger kids, I didn’t think they would know what to do if there was a fire.” Sharonda said.

With the help of a sign language interpreter from KCDHH, the Red Cross installed four alarms in the Mansfield home, including three bedside smoke alarms. Since her children were at school during the installation, the Red Cross made a special return visit a few weeks later to teach the children about fire and disaster safety, and helped the family come up with their fire escape plan. Together, Sharonda and her children talked about the possible escape routes they could take in case of a fire, and designated a tree in their front yard as their meeting place.

“Where would you go?” Sharonda asked the girls later, as they sat in their living room while Clair went over other fire and local disaster safety tips with the family. “Where do you run?”

“Outside!” Estfeanie replied, giggling with her sister.

José, another member of the Mansfield family, testing the bed-shaker portion of the bedside alarm

The Kentucky Red Cross is able to install these alarms part of our Home Fire Campaign in part because of a grant from the WHAS Crusade for Children that provides lifetone smoke alarms for children, as well as our partnership with KCDHH. KCDHH partnered with the Red Cross in 2018 and has also provided communication kits to use at shelters and during disasters. They also provide interpreter services, and help spread the word to the community about fire safety.

To learn more about our campaign to end home fires by installing smoke alarms and providing fire safety education across the country, click here.