ACFR and Red Cross partner to install and check smoke alarms in older homes

ALBEMARLE COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) - Albemarle County Fire Rescue and the American Red Cross went door to door asking to install or check smoke alarms. The devices can save thousands of dollars and lives.

“More than half of the homes that we go to don’t have working smoke alarms, and I don’t know the exact number, but it’s more than half, which is kind of shocking. It’s probably more like 75%,” Emily Pelliccia with ACFR said.

“The chances of escaping a fire safely are increased by 50% if you have a working smoke alarm in your house,” Bill Brent with the American Red Cross said.

Pelliccia says the neighborhoods they visited included many older homes built before the 2000s. She noted that a code change in the 90s required smoke alarms in every sleeping area of a home, hence the decision to visit the older homes.

“We have installed over 2.5 million free smoke alarms, and we have documented over 1500 lives saved as of January of 2023,” Brent said.

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