GFD, Red Cross, DPU student effort to provide smoke detectors for residents

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

With a goal of providing smoke detectors to Greencastle residents who need them, a small army of volunteers will take to city streets Sunday, April 17.

Greencastle Fire Chief John Burgess alerted the City Council to the project during Tuesday night's meeting at City Hall.

The service project, he said, is part of the American Red Cross Home Fire Campaign taking place across the country to help reduce deaths and injuries from fires by 25 percent.

Red Cross volunteers will be joined by fire department personnel and members of DePauw University's Beta Theta Pi fraternity and Alpha Phi sorority from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday in passing out free smoke detectors.

Burgess said the goal is for 150 volunteers to pass out 700 smoke detectors, especially hitting such areas of the city as the South End, Ottawa Park and The Avenues.

The smoke alarms are a new style with a 10-year battery life, the chief said.

The Council asked Burgess how many Greencastle homes currently have working smoke detectors. That is impossible to determine, the fire chief said, but efforts like Sunday's Home Fire Campaign will go a long way toward making many homes safer.

A Red Cross press release indicates volunteers will also help install smoke detectors as needed and "teach people about what they can do now to be prepared should a fire break out in their home."

"Installing smoke detectors cuts the risk of someone dying from a home fire in half, so we're joining with groups from across our community to install smoke alarms," Lindsay Brewer, Disaster Program manager for the Red Cross, said.

American Red Cross of West Central Indiana Executive Director Britton Riley is excited by a chance to help the community.

"We are so excited for this opportunity to mobilize our community and better prepare residents of Greencastle," Riley said. "The partnership brought forth by the fire department, fraternity and sorority will be instrumental in the success of this day."

Last year, the Red Cross of West Central Indiana assisted 268 area families following disasters, the majority of which were house fires. The 17-county chapter has set a goal to install 5,000 smoke alarms by June 30.

In addition to the smoke alarms being passed out on Sunday, Chief Burgess noted that GFD routinely keeps a supply of detectors on hand and will provide a smoke detector free of charge to anyone who needs one for their home. The department typically supplies one smoke alarm for each floor of a home, he said.

Anyone who has questions may call the GFD non-emergency line at 653-3108.

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