American Red Cross of Alaska volunteers and members of the Kenai Fire Department canvassed Kenai neighborhoods Saturday offering free smoke alarm installations. The work is part of the nationwide Home Fire Campaign which aims to reduce residential fires through prevention and education.
The group began efforts in the Lilac Lane neighborhood, the area which saw the most damage following January’s 7.1 magnitude earthquake, where one home exploded and three others burned down.
Within the first five doors that Fire Marshal Tommy Carver knocked on, Ashley and Jared Clay welcomed in firefighters and volunteers to check their smoke detectors. Jared said when the earthquake hit they were lucky they didn’t need to use an emergency plan since they hadn’t discussed one recently.
Jared: “Apparently everyone heard explosions and all this other stuff, but we had just got in our car and left, we actually left our dog because we were just like, no power, ya know we didn’t have heat. So we went to a friend’s house and a neighbor called and said ‘We’re getting evacuated’, so I came back and grabbed our dog, so we didn’t even know when we left that anything was going on down the street.”
On Saturday when firefighters checked the Clay’s only smoke alarm, they found it was not working and installed four new ones in their apartment. Ashley says this was a good reminder that they need to check their safety devices more regularly as well as form an emergency plan for themselves and their four month old son.
Ashley: “Growing up, [my] grandparents lived across the street from the fire station, and we had the call machines inside the house too so we always got to hear what was going on so it was like a reality check, like oh, you have to be prepared. So this was definitely an eye opener that we definitely need to be more prepared and need to start doing better like I did when I was growing up.”
Shiloh Powell with the Red Cross came from Anchorage to organize the event in Kenai and has done multiple installations across Alaska. She detailed the best part of helping Alaskan communities become more knowledgeable about how they can prevent residential fires.
Powell: “I gotta tell ya, walking out of somebody’s home where there are children and the children are telling us all about fire safety when we leave, that’s the greatest moment. When we can actually see that we’ve taught a young one how to survive a structure fire, and they are so smart and ready for this information, it’s very encouraging and exciting to be a part of that.”
The Kenai Fire Department is finalizing a partnership with the Red Cross to continue offering free installations to those who need them in an effort to reduce residential home fires and continue working with the community to be prepared for emergencies.
The campaign is in its second fiscal year and Red Cross has documented saving 70 lives with the smoke alarms they have installed so far. To make an appointment for a free installation, Kenai residents can call Red Cross at 907-301-5476.