There's No Place Like Home: Protect Yours This Fire Prevention Week

There’s no place like home…

There’s no place like home and the sense of security that you feel surrounded by loved ones. Now imagine that all taken away from you in a matter of minutes. 

Firefighters face fierce flames on a daily basis, whether they are paid or volunteer, their duty is the same to protect the public. Every 8 minutes, the American Red Cross responds to a disaster-related incident – the majority of which are home fires. I had the pleasure of speaking with AmeriCorps member Kayla McCall, who serves the American Red Cross of Western New York in the way of fire safety, on this topic.

It’s especially important this Fire Prevention Week as the Red Cross seeks to prepare families against the threat of home fires, which claim seven lives each day in the United States. These disasters are most common now, in the cooler months, when we tend to spend more time inside.

McCall was extremely knowledgeable and shared with me that fire safety is more than just fires and flames. As a person who experienced a home fire herself some years ago, she is now tasked within the ARC to educate families on the topic of residential safety and preparedness, and she has trained well over 30 families! On average, only 26% of families have actually practiced a home fire escape plan with their immediate family.  Regardless, children tend to fall back on their training and “hide from the bad guy” in an attempt to remain safe.  Sadly, if they hide during a fire, they are more likely to perish in the home not due to the fire but instead because of the thick and toxic smoke associated with fires. Statistics say that if there is a fire safety plan in place it reduces panic during an emergency and improves the outcome.

Kayla also had some noteworthy tips to share with our readers: when installing carbon monoxide detectors, place them lower to the ground as the toxic air is heavy and it remains low.  Smoke detectors should be installed up higher since smoke rises quickly.  But the one that I think will hit close to home for most is to avoid daisy chaining! This is the connecting of two or more power strips into each other.  Daisy chaining accounts for a number of OSHA violations, but more importantly they contribute to a large number of electrical fires that could have easily been avoided.

You can help to keep your family safe by testing your smoke alarms, as well as practicing your two-minute escape drill. Teach children what a smoke alarm sounds like and talk about fire safety and what to do in an emergency.

·         Place smoke alarms on each level of your home, including inside and outside bedrooms and sleeping areas. Test alarms monthly and change the batteries at least once a year, if your model requires it.

·         Also check the manufacturer’s date of your smoke alarms. If they’re 10 years or older, they likely need to be replaced because components such as batteries can become less reliable. Follow your alarm’s manufacturer instructions.

·      In your escape plan, include at least two ways to exit every room in your home.

·       Select a meeting spot at a safe distance away from your home, such as your neighbor’s home or landmark like a specific tree in your front yard, where everyone knows to meet.

·        Visit redcross.org/fire for more information, including an escape plan to practice with your family.

Some additional fire safety takeaways that could help keep you and your loved ones stay safe also include keeping a fire extinguisher in your home and changing the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors when you change your clocks with daylight savings time, every six months. For those who may be deaf or hard of hearing, install strobe light and bed-shaker alarms to help alert you or a loved one to a fire. And when practicing your escape plan, include any devices or people that help you to get out safely.

And in cases where you cannot afford to purchase a smoke alarm or are physically unable to install one, the American Red Cross of Western New York is there to help.

Home fires are our nation’s most common disaster. This Fire Prevention Week, help keep your family safe and join Kayla and the Red Cross in its mission to #EndHomeFires.

Story by Holly Gassler, American Red Cross of Western New York communications volunteer

Emergency blood and platelet shortage: Red Cross supplies drop to lowest post-summer levels since 2015

This is serious. 

Currently, the American Red Cross is experiencing an emergency shortage of its national blood inventory, especially type O, and platelets. In fact, the supply is at the lowest level for this time of year since 2015.

 

In order to keep up with hospital demand and ensure that patient care isn’t disrupted, we need your help. Donors of all blood types, especially type O, and platelet donors are needed to make an appointment to donate in the days and weeks to come to help make a lifesaving difference to those patients in need.

 

Here are 3 easy ways YOU can help make a lifesaving difference today:

 

1.    Make an appointment to give blood or platelets. Download the Red Cross Blood Donor app, visit RedCrossBlood.org or call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767).

2.    Bring a friend! Ask a friend to join you and make a regular appointment to donate together.

3.    Spread the word! Let your family and friends know there is an emergency shortage and encourage them to donate, too.

 

As our way of saying ‘thanks’ to all those who come in to donate, you’ll receive a link by email to claim a free Zaxby’s Signature Sandwich reward or get a $5 e-gift card to a merchant of your choice. Terms and conditions apply; see rcblood.org/zax for more details.

 

There are lots of scary things to think about this upcoming Halloween, don’t let a blood shortage be one of them. Help the Red Cross meet the emergency need by rolling up a sleeve and donating blood & platelets today!

 

 

Seizing the Moment: Lessons Learned in the Wake of Unspeakable Tragedy

 New York City—American Red Cross, November, 2001

            In November of 2001, I went down to NYC as a volunteer for the American Red Cross. How to describe the NYC experience other than to say it was interesting and intense? That latter two are the polite and short answers, but there is more.

I am glad I went and I feel it was right, for whatever reason, for me to be there. The guys I worked with were great and taught me a lot as we laughed together, a really great team. It showed me how good a working relationship could be.

While I was in New York City, I spent most of my time assisting the Logistics Officer in Headquarters for DR 848, which is the disaster number for American Airlines Flight 587, the plane that crashed into the Queens neighborhood on November 12, 2001. I wrote reports, figured out their compute system, ordered and tracked supplies and cars, and made phone calls to city officials. At one point we left headquarters to provide assistance during the prayer service for the victim’s families. It felt good to be given the chance to reach out and help the people affected.  It gave me the opportunity to fill the classic Red Cross role of putting blankets around their shoulders and giving them food.

While we were in NYC we received full access badges to Ground “Hero,” which is what people in New York call the site of the World Trade Center. I went twice, the second time getting right to the edge of the pit. One guy called it looking into the jaws of hell. The enormity of the destruction is incomprehensible, much different from what you see on TV (which makes it all look like just another movie set). I visited a little church just across the street that somehow survived the towers collapse with not a touch of damage (the “miracle” church). The inside of the church was almost completely covered with drawings and messages from people. The extent and amount of the outpouring of people's expressions is as enormous and as difficult to assimilate as the extent of the evil witnessed in the damage outside.  The juxtaposition of the two is very thought provoking. I'm not sure I've quite processed it all yet. Nor do I think the fireman I talked with have processed it either. They seemed shell-shocked. The hardest job must have been the ambulance person, standing at attention next to her stretcher. Do you hope for a recovery, to be busy and involved, or do you not hope because that means another life lost will bring sorrow to their family? How difficult to just stand by and wait.

            Meanwhile, outside the church was a quiet little cemetery full of headstones and trees. The trees’ branches still hold trash from the collapse. The stones are so old (from 1700s) you cannot read many of the names. As you look across that restful patch of ground in the midst of the hustle of the city, you find yourself looking at a spot lit backdrop of massive twists of steel and cement being demolished by construction crews. Both people and machines look minuscule in comparisons to the enormous piles they are working on removing.

And you know that most of the people under the stones died quietly in their beds with their families near by and the people beyond died horribly from evil caught unexpectedly in the midst of their daily morning routines. And the names of the one are gone and the names of the other may never be known. Both names put on stone, like Ozymandius, mean nothing. The end result is the same.

            What can each of us learn from this? To be prepared for whatever comes in the next second, hour, day, or year. To realize that evil is equally countered by good if we remember look for the latter in the quiet corners. To believe that miracles can and will happen no matter how bad things appear at first glance. To know that how we will be remembered is by how we touch people today. It is people's memories of us and our actions that will bring each of us true immortality, not our name on a stone.

Most importantly, we should remember not to seize the day or the hour, but to seize the moment and hold it tight for it will be gone and replaced by we know not what. Each of us needs to keep these moments to sustain us. As T.S. Elliot said in the appropriately titled “The Waste Land:”

            “These fragments I have shored against my ruins…

            Shantih”

                                                                        By Kathleen E. Rourke

                                                                        December 2001

 

Kathleen Rourke is the Red Cross community volunteer leader in Tompkins County, Spiritual Care lead and Disaster Action Team member with more than 20 years of experience

'The Country Really Came Together': Red Crosser Recounts Resilience in Nation's Darkest Days

“I’m very proud of the Red Cross.”

Charles Blake has been with the American Red Cross for almost 40 years, so it’s not surprising he would have pride in the organization. In this case, however, the Southwest and Rocky Mountain Division Disaster Executive is talking about a specific event from 20 years ago.

The then-Senior Director of Emergency Services and International Services for the National Capital Region started the morning of September 11, 2001, meeting with the Chief of the Metro Police, talking about a contract to provide first aid training and other services to the department. That meeting ended when an employee rushed in saying that a plane had crashed into a World Trade Center tower. They rushed around the corner in time to see the second plane hit the second tower on live TV.

“We didn’t realize it was a second plane,” Blake remembers. “We thought it was a replay.”

Shaken, Blake went on with his day, which involved an event away from the K-Street office in DC. He was carpooling with an FBI agent also scheduled to attend that event, talking about the incidents earlier that morning in NYC.

“The FBI agent said, ‘You know, if this is terrorist activity, the next target will likely be the Pentagon,’” Blake said. Four minutes later, he received a call saying a plane had in fact crashed into the Pentagon. They immediately turned the car around to return to the Red Cross office and saw thousands of people running out of office buildings in chaos.

“When I first got to the office, we still weren’t sure what we were dealing with,” Blake said. With a line of people outside Red Cross Square looking to donate blood, he began working to set up a larger donation center, until the Disaster Operation Center called and said they needed him at the Pentagon. Blake began on what he calls a “life changing experience,” working with partners to stand up a respite center for first responders and families who had lost loved ones in the tragedy. Volunteers provided food and emotional support, and helped coordinate the distribution of the many donations that came in to help.

“I felt a huge responsibility to get this off on the right foot,” Blake says. “The country really came together, supporting us with their dollars and their prayers. For 30 days, you could walk down the street wearing the logo and people would come up and donate cash or checks. It was a very scary time for us, but we came through. Folks did a spectacular job taking care of first responders and families.”

A photo of Blake on a cell phone in front of the Pentagon still hangs on the wall of the Red Cross Disaster Operations Center, and the emotions from responding to terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, PA, remain as well.

“I still have emails I haven’t opened from that time, burned on a CD,” Blake said. “We survived it. We came back. We’re resilient.”

As Division Disaster Executive, Blake has responded to a lot of disasters, and is currently supporting the Hurricane Ida relief efforts in the Gulf. However, he will make time this week to help represent the Red Cross at a private wreath-laying ceremony for select agencies at the Pentagon as we remember those tragic events that took the lives nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, PA, 20 years ago.

“We’ve always been here to help for 140 years, hope to continue for 140 more,” Blake says. “It’s people coming together. We all have ownership in the Red Cross.”

-Jay Bonafede, American Red Cross