Make Preparedness Your Holiday Gift and Resolution!

Coming off a large-scale disaster like Western New York's recent #WinterStormKnife, this may be hard to believe. But the Red Cross responded to more house fires this year than any other type of disaster. Combined.

In the past week, the Central New York Chapter has provided assistance to 46 people who have been displaced from theirhomes by fires. In the past 24 hours, the Greater Rochester Chapter has responded to three separate fires, helping ten people. Yesterday afternoon, I joined Disaster Action Team volunteer Dennis as we assisted two people after a fire in Buffalo. While there was no media coverage like we saw during "Snowvember", all you had to do was look up at the sky where their roof was before the fire to realize this was truly a disaster for these people, especially coming so close to the holidays.

Between January 1 and December 1, 2014, the Red Cross provided food, clothing, shelter, comfort and hope to 3,381 people in Western and Central New York who had nowhere else to turn after a house fire. Tragically, we have also had 34 fire-related deaths in 2014. 

Disaster Action Team volunteer Dennis at a fire on
Bissell in Buffalo December 22

The Red Cross has launched a campaign to reduce the number of home fire deaths and injuries nationwide by 25 percent over the next five years. We are asking every household to take two simple steps: check your existing smoke alarms, and practice fire drills at home.

Don't have a smoke alarm? Part of the Home Fire Preparedness Campaign is to work with fire departments and community groups nationwide to install smoke alarms. Call (585) 241-4405 for more information about how you could have a free smoke alarm installed in your home!

http://prepare.ny.gov/online-citizen-preparedness-training

As we prepared to flip the calendar to 2015, why not resolve to make your family better prepared for emergencies, including house fires? The Red Cross has also partnered with New York State to offer the Citizen Preparedness Corps program. In just 15 minutes, this online course will give you the knowledge and tools to prepare for disasters (just make sure you choose "Red Cross" from the referral dropdown menu!). You can also schedule a free, in-person Prepare, Respond, Recover: What to do When Disaster Strikes presentation at your school, business or organization. A trained representative will present the one-hour program, providing a comprehensive overview on how to prepare for, respond to and recover from natural and man-made disasters.

As if making your loved ones safer isn't enough of a holiday gift, all Western & Central NY Region in-person Citizen Preparedness Corps class registrants before March 31 will be entered to win one of two FREE generators! For more information on the Home Fire Preparedness campaign, Citizen Preparedness Corps, and how you could get a free smoke alarm or win a free generator, contact Individual and Community Preparedness Specialist Veronica Chiesi Brown at (585) 241-4405.

Let's work together to make 2015 Western and Central New York's safest year yet. That would truly be a gift that keeps on giving!

Putting things into perspective

The Red Cross is an incredible organization that does amazing work, but for those of us fortunate enough to work here, there are days when it presents the same frustrations as any other job. Unlike other places, however, the Red Cross often snaps you back into reality and reminds you why we work so hard for our communities.

Sunday morning, our Buffalo DAT volunteers responded to two separate fires in Orchard Park and on Fillmore Ave in the City. The latter was an especially difficult situation, as a seven-year-old lost his life in the fire. Such tragedies unfortunately heighten the media interest, and Sunday afternoon I received a call from a local television station looking for more information on how the Red Cross is helping the family deal with this unthinkable situation. Because our volunteers were no longer on the scene and my wife had gone to the movies, the reporter came to my house. Doing an interview from your front step about a fire that claimed a seven-year-old while your own seven-year-old is watching intently from the window really puts things into perspective. I can't begin to imagine what this family is going through, but I am so proud to be a small part of an organization that brings some hope and comfort to these neighbors and countless others like them each day.

Unfortunately, this situation is not unique. In the first three months of 2014, there have been ten fire deaths in the 17 counties that make up our Western New York/Finger Lakes Region. In an effort to change those statistics, the Red Cross is hosting eight "Team Firestoppers" events across the Region this Saturday. Working with Project Paradigm and the Children's Fire & Burn Fund, volunteers will be providing people in high-risk communities with potentially lifesaving fire safety and emergency preparedness information. We'll also be providing 800 free smoke detectors to help make these families safer. If we can help prevent even just one tragic story like those above, it will be well worth the effort.

Some True "March Madness"

If you're like me, you're a little bleary-eyed today after watching far too many hours of college basketball over the weekend. But while we were following our brackets and celebrating Cinderella's upsets (Florida Gulf Coast?!?), there was also a reminder of the fact that disaster doesn't take a holiday, not even for those taking part in the NCAA Tournament.

Syracuse University basketball star's home was destroyed
by fire in Hamilton, MA. (Courtesy WCVB.COM)

Michael Carter-Williams spent Saturday night in California, leading his Syracuse Orange to the Sweet 16 with a victory over Cal. But he wasn't celebrating after the game. That's when the sophomore's mother, who was at the arena, told him the family home in Hamilton, MA was destroyed by fire during the game. Thankfully, Carter-Williams' family was able to get out of the house safely, and he and his SU teammates can turn their focus to playing top-ranked Indiana on Thursday night while his family begins the rebuilding process.

House fires can happen at any time, even while millions are watching you on TV as you play one of the biggest games of your life. Take a little break from March Madness to make sure you and your loved ones are prepared, just in case. Remember, March isn't all about hoops--it's Red Cross Month as well!!

Fall into Fire Prevention Week

The leaves are changing, it's getting a little chilly outside, there's football on the weekends, and the coffee shops are all serving pumpkin-flavored drinks and donuts. That, of course, can mean only one thing: Fall is here. But along with the beautiful colors and Halloween celebrations comes the renewed use of furnaces and space heaters, which means added danger of house fires. So it's no coincidence that National Fire Prevention Week begins on Sunday. 

Did you know that the American Red Cross responds to about one house fire every nine minutes across the country? Here in Western New York, we provided emergency assistance including food, clothing, temporary shelter and emotional support to over 1,000 people displaced by fires last year. Just two days ago, our volunteers gave hotel and food vouchers to two people after a fire on Leddy Street in Buffalo.

Our Disaster Action Team responds to an average of more than a fire a day in Erie & Niagara Counties, but we would much rather help the community prevent fires than respond to them. We got a head start on Fire Prevention Week with this past weekend's Fire Safety Day event in Buffalo's Schiller Park neighborhood. During that event, NYS's Fire Safety House gave us all a smokey, first-hand look at how difficult it can be to see in a fire and the importance of knowing your escape routes before a fire. Here's some things you can do now that will help keep you and your loved ones safe in case fire:

• Ensure that household members know two ways to escape from every room and designate a place to meet outside of your house in case of a fire. Practice your plan at least twice a year.
• Follow your escape plan in case of fire. Get out, stay out, and call 9-1-1 or the local emergency number.
• Install smoke alarms on every level of the house and inside bedrooms.
• Replace batteries in smoke alarms at least once a year. Test each alarm monthly by pushing the test button.
• Download the American Red Cross First Aid App to get access to life-saving information on what to do for common, everyday first aid emergencies. The app is available in the Apple App Store and on Google Play for Android.

Visit www.redcross.org/homefires for additional fire safety tips. 

While this might be the official Fire Prevention Week, fire safety is really a year-round job. To schedule a free disaster preparedness education program at your school, business or organization, call (716) 878-2230. And remember, the Red Cross relies on your generous support to be able to respond to fires and other disasters here in Western New York. To make a donation, click here, call 1-800-REDCROSS, or text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation (charges will appear on your cell phone bill).

Fire safety lessons-Free!!

As the calendar flips to October, we say goodbye to another National Preparedness Month. Of course, here at the Red Cross, we preach the importance of disaster preparedness all year long, but we wrapped up September with a Fire Safety Day event Saturday to help residents in Buffalo's Schiller Park neighborhood prevent and prepare for the most common disaster--house fires.

Sr. Director of Emergency Services Ken Turner discussing
fire safety with East Side residents 

Senior Director of Emergency Services Ken Turner got the morning underway by telling families enjoying some light refreshments at the Schiller Park Senior Center that almost a quarter of the approximately 400 fires we responded to last year occurred on the east side of the city. Lt. Harris from the Buffalo Fire Department discussed some important fire safety tips such as how to properly use a fire extinguisher. A woman then shared the personal story of how she lost everything when her City of Buffalo home was destroyed by a dryer fire a few years ago.

Then it was lesson time. Louise Porter and Nicole Roma let the children through activities such as a maze demonstrating the difficulty of finding your way around through a fire, while Denise Herkey-Jarosch led the adults through some disaster planning exercises. One of the highlights of the morning was the opportunity to walk the NYS Office of Fire Prevention and Control's "Fire Safety House", a fully functional trailer that, among other things, can fill with "smoke" to give people a realistic demonstration of how difficult it can be to see during a fire and why it's important to have an escape plan mapped out ahead of time.

Area children get an interactive example of smoky
conditions inside "Fire Safety House"

The most important part of the morning came at the event's end, however. Everyone who came to the program enhanced their newly-learned fire safety skills by taking home a free smoke detector, courtesy of the Children's Fire & Burn Fund. This organization has given away hundreds of thousands of smoke detectors in the past 20-plus years, and President Daniel Moran told us how 36 lives have been saved when these free units were the only smoke detectors in the house when a fire started.

The event may be over, but the work continues. Volunteers will soon be following up with event attendees to make sure the smoke detectors have been installed and to see if they have discussed disaster plans with their families or neighbors. And further down the road, numbers will be compared to see whether the program--co sponsored by the American Red Cross, Buffalo Board of Block Clubs, Buffalo CERT, Buffalo Fire Department, Children's Fire & Burn Fund and Schiller Park Community Services--reduced the number of fires in this community.

Next week is National Fire Prevention Week, so there's no time like the present to schedule a free disaster preparedness education program at your school, business or organization by calling Louise at (716) 878-2230, and in the meantime, click here for more information on home fire safety and prevention!

When disaster strikes

Lightning is believed to be the cause of a fire that broke out in an Orchard Park apartment complex last night, which just goes to show us that no matter how careful we are, disaster can still strike! So we need to be prepared! 

Photo courtesy of Channel 4 news, www.wivb.com/

How can you prepare?

Have working smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors outside of every sleeping area and on each level of your home

Have trouble remembering when to change the batteries? If you can't remember the last time you did, it’s time to change them! We suggest making daylight-saving time your official time to change batteries and update your emergency preparedness kits.

                Make an emergency kit for everyone in your household… even your pets!

Don’t know what to include in yours? Check out our fun and interactive link that will help you your family make one!

                Make sure there is a whistle in each sleeping area

If a fire breaks out and you’re stuck in your room, the sound of a whistle will travel much further than your voice, and save you from inhaling a lot of smoke!

                Have an emergency meeting place

Make sure everyone in your household knows where to meet outside if there is an emergency.  Don’t make it the front porch or fire hydrant!

Make sure that everyone in your household knows two ways out of each room 

One way might be a door… is the other a window? Could you make the jump or do you need a rope ladder?

For more tips on how to be prepared, visit us online or call Denise Herkey-Jarosch, Regional Coordinator, NYS Citizens Preparedness Program, at (716) 878-2231 or Louise Porter, Prepared and Ready Coordinator at (716) 878-2230 to schedule a Be Red Cross Ready presentation that addresses issues such as fire preparedness.