TAUNTON – It’s not only a free offer but one that conceivably could save your life.
Although the American Red Cross has been offering free installation of smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors across the country for nearly four years, their effort so far has yet to make a dent in the Taunton area.
Hilary V. Greene said it’s as easy as dialing what used to be called a toll-free number.
“I think people don’t believe it’s free,” said Greene, executive director of American Red Cross for the Cape, Islands and southeastern Massachusetts.
Greene says it’s not simply a matter of income level. Many homeowners who can easily afford the alarms and detectors for various reasons, she said, decline to do so.
One need only call 800-746-3511 to get on a waiting list to set up an appointment.
Once that is done, Greene said, two Red Cross associates will come out to the house or apartment building.
“Our volunteers are always in your area,” she said.
Greene says one of them will do the installation while the other will conduct a short seminar on fire safety, specifically as it relates to house fires.
One of the things she said most people don’t know, or don’t want to know when the occasion arises, is that they have less than two minutes to safely evacuate a dwelling once a fire has ignited and spread.
Most house fires, not surprisingly, occur in the kitchen, she noted.
Greene said the Red Cross can install, gratis, per building one CO detector and as many as three smoke alarms.
The group’s Home Fire Campaign was launched in 2014. Its five-year plan was to reduce injuries and fatalities caused by home fires by 25 percent.
Sound the Alarm, which entails installation of alarms, detectors and new batteries, is part of that Red Cross campaign.
Greene said data from fire departments across the country indicate the program so far has been responsible for more than 330 “saves.”
Greene also says that a letter she submitted to the Cape Cod Times, following the death last December of an elderly Chatham woman — who died after accidentally being poisoned in her home by carbon monoxide — spurred a flurry of calls to the 800 number.
“It seemed to hit a nerve,” Greene said.
Now she hopes people in the Taunton area who could use similar assistance will also call the Sound the Alarm number to avert such a tragedy.
“Our mission is preparedness,” Greene said. “We can’t prevent a fire, but it gets you out safely.”