Help prevent home fires this Thanksgiving

Did you know that Thanksgiving and the day before are the top two days for the chance of a cooking fire to happen in someone's home in the U.S.? 

Cooking is the leading cause of home fires, home fire injuries and the second-leading cause of home fire deaths. If you're helping to prep this year's Thanksgiving feast, help make sure you and your loved ones stay safe with these safety tips from the American Red Cross of Western New York.

COOKING SAFETY TIPS:

·       Stay in the kitchen when you are frying, grilling, or broiling food. If you must leave the kitchen for even a short period of time, turn off the stove.

·       Use a timer to remind yourself that the stove or oven is on.

·       Avoid wearing loose clothing or dangling sleeves while cooking.

·       Keep kids and pets at least three feet away from cooking areas.

·       Keep anything that can catch on fire — potholders, oven mitts, wooden utensils, paper or plastic bags, food packaging, and towels or curtains — away from your stove top and oven or any other appliance that generates heat.

·       Clean cooking surfaces on a regular basis to prevent grease buildup.

·       Consider purchasing a fire extinguisher to keep in your kitchen.

·       Always check the kitchen before going to bed or leaving home to make sure all stoves, ovens and small appliances are turned off.

 

Follow these safety tips and visit redcross.org/fire for more information, including a fire escape plan to practice with your household.

Smoke alarms save lives. Install a smoke alarm near your kitchen, on each level of your home, near sleeping areas, and inside and outside bedrooms if you sleep with doors closed. Use the test button to check it each month. Replace all batteries at least once a year. 

If you cannot afford to purchase smoke alarms or are physically unable to install one, the Red Cross may be able to help. Visit redcross.org/homefiresafetywny or contact your local Red Cross for more information. 

Since October 2014, the Red Cross Home Fire Campaign, working with community installation partners, has saved 53 lives in the Western New York region and at least 1,928 lives across the country by educating families about fire safety, helping them create escape plans and installing free smoke alarms in high-risk areas across the country. 

'It's the idea of helping': Responding to local disasters has become a holiday tradition for two unlikely friends

On paper, Chris Sadlocha and John Rudolph couldn’t be more different.

Sadlocha is a retired elementary school teacher of 40 years and Rudolph is a former volunteer firefighter and paramedic with an interest in amateur radio. But like many Red Cross volunteers, they have one very important thing in common.

“You know, we’re helpful people,” Sadlocha laughed.

Both drawn to the American Red Cross in the hopes of making a difference in the lives of those facing

emergencies at home in Delaware and Otsego Counties and across the country, the unlikely friends paired up for the first time as Disaster Action Team (DAT) members on New Year’s Eve just four years ago.

“Responding to fires and helping people wasn’t a far spur from what I used to do,” Rudolph explained. “Chris was there to help me. We went out on my first few calls together. He’s been a giant help there.”

As DAT members, those calls regularly consist of being some of the first on the scene in the wake of a disaster – primarily home fires. Red Cross DAT volunteers like Chris and John are often some of the first to meet with families in the wake of devastating home fires and provide support to those who just lost everything.

“We’re there to try and give them some peace of mind. Some funds for food, hotel, clothing, whatever they need to get them stable and figure out the rest. Being able to be there for them in that way may seem like a small thing, but when these people are going through this, it’s something huge.”

In the 2021 fiscal year, Red Cross volunteers responded to 936 local disasters in the Western New York region – the majority of which were home fires – and provided immediate emergency assistance to more than 1,600 families. For Red Crossers like Chris and John, it doesn’t matter the time or the day as they consider themselves always “on call.” In fact, this past Thanksgiving holiday, Chris volunteered his time to answer the call – driving more than an hour to assist a family impacted by a home fire in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania.

“What are the pieces that drive us? You know, it’s the idea of helping,” Sadlocha explained. “I’m in a warm house, I’ve got plans maybe to go work out in the garden, take a walk, do some reading. Meanwhile, those folks down there have lost their home. They’re experiencing one of the worst days of their lives and we can provide some relief for that. So, we’ll take that drive for that.”

But as they approach another anniversary of their first response together this New Years, they both admit they could also use some help. Over the years, the pair has added considerably to their DAT duties with Sadlocha taking on roles as a Regional Onboarding Lead among others, and Rudolph now assisting DAT responses virtually as a Duty Officer while training to serve as an Emergency Response Vehicle operator on local and national responses.

Always looking to add to the DAT roster and the Red Cross volunteer base in general, the duo is encouraging others to resolve to volunteer with the Red Cross in any capacity this coming new year.

“No matter what the job is, it’s the people working together,” said Rudolph. “I have found that even in the worst cases, people find a way to deal with it and make it as enjoyable as possible.

“Probably the strongest thing I could say to persuade somebody to join the Red Cross is you can really help and provide the relief to somebody that’s having the worst day of their life,” Sadlocha explained. “It’s highly rewarding. There are volunteer positions with the Red Cross that you don’t get in a whole bunch of other places.”

To learn more about available volunteer positions, including the Disaster Action Team, visit redcross.org/volunteertoday or contact RecruitWNY@redcross.org.

MVPs Sound the Alarm to Save a Life

At about 6:30 p.m. on May 16, 2019, Merlene Jackson's daughter picked her up. 20 minutes later, she received a call from her son. Merlene's Ravenwood Avenue, Rochester, home was on fire. "The kitchen was destroyed, part of the dining room," Jackson says. "Smoke is through the whole house, we can't stay there with the smoke." Her son, Tyrese Bryant, and 13-year-old granddaughter, Liberty, were home sleeping when the fire started. Thankfully, just one week earlier, a team of volunteers from MVP Health Care--Tim Reidy, Paul Bottazzo, and Mark Shipley--joined Red Cross intern Sara Ward from SUNY Brockport and visited Merlene's home as part of the Red Cross Sound the Alarm campaign. The team from MVP Health Care and Red Cross interns and volunteers who helped Sound the alarm on May 9 "They removed my old smoke alarms, and gave me three new ones," Jackson said. "My son was asleep, that's what woke him up. Two of them were going off, one in the dining room, one upstairs in the hallway. That's what got my son up." "It could've been a lot worse, I'm not even sure the other ones worked." Jackson also says the education and escape planning the volunteers provided helped Tyrese and Liberty know what to do when the alarms went off. Red Cross volunteers visited Merlene again after the fire, providing her family with funding for temporary housing, food, and clothing. However, it was that visit by the Red Cross volunteers from MVP Health Care that helped her son and granddaughter to still be here today. "Sunday, I shared my story with our entire congregation at church," Merlene says. "I said, 'If you don't have a smoke alarm in your house, call the Red Cross, it's very important.'" "If it wasn't for the smoke alarms...they were sound asleep!" Since launching in 2014, the Home Fire Campaign has saved over 580 lives nationally, including 23 in Western and Central New York. Learn more about our campaign to #EndHomeFires at soundthealarm.org/wcny. -Jay Bonafede, American Red Cross