EPFD, Rhode Island Red Cross ready smoke detector installation effort

Free program provides for up to three devices in residential structures

By Mike Rego
Posted 5/1/17

EAST PROVIDENCE — In an effort to curb the number of significant fire incidents in city homes, the East Providence Fire Department and the American Red Cross of Rhode Island are teaming up to …

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EPFD, Rhode Island Red Cross ready smoke detector installation effort

Free program provides for up to three devices in residential structures

Posted

EAST PROVIDENCE — In an effort to curb the number of significant fire incidents in city homes, the East Providence Fire Department and the American Red Cross of Rhode Island are teaming up to help get residents properly protected.
On Thursday, May 11, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., trained volunteers and licensed/insured professionals will install smoke detectors free of charge in homes lacking the devices. It’s part of the American Red Cross’ "Home Fire Preparedness Campaign."
Anyone in the city who is need of smoke detectors can set up an installation by calling 1-877-287-3327. Interested parties can also register for the program online at redcross.org/ri/schedule-a-visit.
Home owners will be afforded the opportunity to have for up to three smoke detectors installed at no cost. The lithium battery operated devices have a 10-year life span and, a key element to overall scope of the effort, the battery cannot be removed. Kidde Corporation, a subsidiary of United Technologies, donates the smoke detectors.
“Time and time again in this city when we there is a fire within a residential structure that the smoke detector might be installed on the ceiling, but it lacks the battery,” said EPFD Chief Oscar Elmasian. “And I can’t emphasize enough, after my 30 years in this city, smoke detectors and early notification are the keys to the evacuation of occupants.”
According to American Red Cross of Rhode Island senior director of emergency services Elizabeth McDonald, the organization is quickly expanding the program’s reach. In Rhode Island alone to date in 2017, Red Cross has installed over 1,300 smoke detectors. In 2016, the first year of the program locally, the organization installed some 1,000 detectors.
“We have way too many incidents,” Ms. McDonald said. “We respond to over 70,000 fire related incidents a year across the country. Our volunteers go to those homes, and it’s hard when they respond to a fire. So, the goal is to go inside the house and install the smoke detectors prior to a fire happening. The goal is to make these houses safer.”
The local effort is part of a national campaign started in 2015 with an aim at decreasing the number of fire related deaths nationwide by 25 percent by 2020. Since the inception of the program, Ms. McDonald said American Red Cross has installed nearly 800,000 smoke detectors and helped save some 215 lives across the country.
“Our fire departments are amazing because they see what happens. And they’re the ones who call us at 2 o’clock in the morning to help out,” Ms. McDonald explained. “Both of us as agencies understand that 60 percent of deaths that occur from fire related incidents are because there are no smoke detectors, and that doesn’t need to be case.”
The lack of properly affixed smoke detectors in city is ever present. Chief Elmasian said “there’s a great need” in East Providence for the program “because we are still going to emergency incidents for fire and we have too many houses that don’t have smoke detectors installed.”
Specifically, the chief cited the center of East Providence, which is the location for many of the city’s oldest homes and a number of multi-family units. With that in mind, volunteers will do door-to-door canvassing in the area on May 11.
“The reason for the canvassing is the call volume in the center of the city and the number of responses we have there. We wanted to get the biggest audience we could on that given day,” Chief Elmasian said.
Although only the center of the city will be canvassed, it doesn’t mean the other parts will be ignored. Ms. McDonald noted the program will continue beyond May 11. American Red Cross Rhode Island regularly offers smoke detector installations three days a week and one Saturday per month. A follow-up program is also under consideration for the fall.
This is the first time American Red Cross of Rhode Island is administering its Home Fire Preparedness Campaign in East Providence. Similar efforts have been done in Cranston, Tiverton and Cumberland.
“The reason why I love this program is not just because it helps people, but it gets volunteers from different parts of the community together,” Ms. McDonald said. “It’s not about the installation, it’s about the education. The team will go into your house and help families put together their emergency escape program. They’ll plan two ways to get out of the house for everybody. And they get a cute magnet to put on their refrigerator so they’re remember and practice their program. And we also usually discuss one of other hazard, and we’ll be discussing hurricane season this year. So we can prepare the entire family for that as well.”
About two dozen volunteers are expected to participate in the effort, which also includes input from the EPFD Fire Prevention Division led by Captain Kenneth Botelho and Lieutenant Thomas Trainor, East Providence Emergency Management Administration director Wayne Barnes and the East Providence School District. Elementary school students will be provided with a flyer announcing the program with the approval of the Schools Superintendent Kathryn Crowley.

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MIKE REGO

Mike Rego has worked at East Bay Newspapers since 2001, helping the company launch The Westport Shorelines. He soon after became a Sports Editor, spending the next 10-plus years in that role before taking over as editor of The East Providence Post in February of 2012. To contact Mike about The Post or to submit information, suggest story ideas or photo opportunities, etc. in East Providence, email mrego@eastbaymediagroup.com.