Lives Saved: Binghamton family escapes home fire days after Red Cross smoke alarm install

“If they hadn’t come, I couldn’t even imagine.”

For months, Cassandra Simmons had been prompted to install smoke alarms in the Binghamton home she shares with her husband, daughter and three grandchildren after a recent construction project.

“I had a hard time getting them where they needed to go and then I would see something else in the mail for the American Red Cross and so I thought let me give them a call.”

This past February a team of Red Cross volunteers as part of the Sound the Alarm Home Fire campaign visited Simmons’ home to install free smoke alarms throughout her home and provide lifesaving home fire safety education, including a two-minute escape plan in the event of a home fire.

“It brings me to tears every time. It was Thursday and then that Sunday, if we didn’t have the Red Cross come in here, I don’t think myself and my grandson would be here.”

That Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday. While her 8-year-old grandson was getting ready for a Super Bowl celebration, a fire broke out in the upstairs bathroom at the top of the stairs and adjacent to the children’s bedrooms.

“We’d already had a smoke alarm in the hallway, so when the man from the Red Cross put them up, he asked if we’d like one upstairs. When I asked ‘what would you do’ he said yes, because by the time the smoke reaches the alarm we already had, it might be too late to get out of the house,” Simmons explained.

Recounting that day, Simmons isn’t sure what made her ask the question of the Red Cross volunteer, but she is thankful she did.

“He was so right. If he hadn’t put that there, I wouldn’t have heard the smoke alarm until it was too late. There would have been no room for me to get down the stairs because the fire started along the back of the bathroom door. By the time that smoke would have reached downstairs, the upstairs would have been engulfed in flames.”

Simmons, her husband, grandson and 9-year-old granddaughter, who had been upstairs in her bedroom at the time of the fire, managed to safely escape the home and call 911. 

“I was scared, I was crying, I was cold,” Simmons explained. “We were standing outside and the Red Cross came and they were so nice. The gentleman from the Red Cross put a blanket around me. They gave us enough blankets for all of us, a care package with everything you can think of that you may need. They were just very kind. And they stayed in touch with us by calling us to make sure that we were OK and reaching out to the agencies that would be able to help us.”

Now four and a half months later, Simmons and her family are finally able to move back into the home they shared with a renewed appreciation for the little things, a greater desire to pay it forward and plans to help those in need, and some invaluable advice for all those Simmons encounters from here on out.

“Once it happens there’s no going back it’s too late,” Simmons said. “Everybody I know from now on will hear from me, ‘do you have a smoke alarm?’ Because if not, call this number. All it takes is a phone call.”

Since 2014, the Sound the Alarm Home Fire Safety campaign has helped to save lives and make homes safer locally and across the country. You can schedule your home fire safety visit, which includes the installation of free smoke alarms and home fire safety education including a two-minute escape plan year-round by clicking here.