"The alarms went off and you could hear a power surge going through the wall, crackling it." Resident of the home Don Hayes said. He was one of the four people inside the home at the time of the fire.
The residents say the walls in their home became hot to the touch and that's when they realized something was wrong. The fire was electrical, caused by a nail being inside of the paneling of the house. It knocked the power out and before the residents knew it, a fire started going up the paneling on the wall.
"Carl Schwab stated that he was glad we installed the smoke alarms previously as it gave them time to respond to the fire. The alarms in the bedroom where the fire started sounded first, then the other alarms went off." Red Cross volunteer Richard Parker said.
The residents say they were able to evacuate safely after the alarms went off with the help of the fire escape plan developed with the Red Cross. When the home started to fill with smoke, Carl Schwab says his son started to use a fire extinguisher to help. When the smoke wasn't going away, the residents then called the fire department and evacuated the home.
"Carl kept a level head during the fire and didn't panic." -Resident Don Hayes said.
Schwab says that what he learned from the Red Cross kept him from panicking.
"By Carl doing what he did and knowing what to do, he kept a level head and got me out when the house could have gone up in fire." Resident Don Hayes said.
"Carl said that he knew he did not have much time to evacuate because he has learned how quickly a home could go up during a fire during the visit from Red Cross," said Parker, who responded to the fire as a member of the Disaster Action Team.
The Red Cross put up the four residents until their house was fixed and livable. The residents also made sure they had new alarms re-installed by the Red Cross after they returned to their rebuilt home.
"People should have smoke alarms everywhere. They need them," says Carl Schwab. "Without them you won't know anything and will sleep right through it."-Schwab said. Experts say you can have as little as two minutes to safely escape a home fire, and working smoke alarms can help cut the risk of dying in a home fire in half. The Red Cross is asking everyone to help Sound the Alarm this spring, when we'll be installing 2,000 free smoke alarms in homes across Western and Central New York, while providing important fire safety information and encouraging families to put together and practice escape plans. For more information, or to sign up for a free smoke installation, visit www.soundthealarm.org/wcny.
-Angela Lorusso
Communications Intern
