By Red Cross Volunteer Patricia Griffiths.

The nation’s most frequent disaster is not wildfires, hurricanes, or earthquakes. It’s home fires.

“In 2024, we responded to more than 800 fires!” said Priscilla Fuentes, CEO of Red Cross Cascades Region.  As a child, Fuentes survived a home fire, and was deeply touched by the assistance the Red Cross provided her family. For her, home fires are personal.

As with Fuentes, thousands of people have been deeply affected by home fires. So, ten years ago, the American Red Cross initiated a program to prevent home fires from ever starting, the Home Fire Campaign (HFC).

Essentially, HFC consists of three elements:

• Inspect homes for fire hazards,
• Install smoke alarms, and
• Work with residents to develop safety and evacuation plans.

There is no cost for any of this, even for the smoke alarms. Red Cross teams work with residents in the comfort of their homes to complete the home safety plan in about one hour. Since its inception, the campaign nationwide has saved more than 2,000  lives, installed nearly 3 million smoke alarms, and trained 1.2 million people in home fire prevention.

In December 2024, ten years after the start of HFC, Priscilla Fuentes held a training in Portland, Oregon for Red Cross volunteers on how to install smoke alarms and educate people on safety plans. She showed each volunteer how to inspect homes for hazards, especially noting the risk of candles placed in windows with curtains during the holiday season.

“Smoke alarms cut your risk of dying in a home fire in half!” she exclaimed. “So, we think it’s critical people have working smoke alarms in their homes. They’re free!” The importance of smoke alarms is made even clearer with a simple statistic: on average, a person has two minutes to exit a home from the start of a fire. The warning from a smoke alarm can make all the difference.

After the training is done, Fuentes and the trained smoke alarm installers went to the home of a person who requested a Red Cross fire safety visit. While the smoke alarms were being installed, Fuentes explained to the resident what common hazards to avoid and how to make an evacuation plan. She showed the resident a nearby parking lot, and suggested that it be the designated meeting place in case of an emergency evacuation. In a short time, Fuentes and her team completed their HFC safety visit, ensuring that family would not endure what Fuentes had as a child. Most importantly, one more home was made safer.

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Now is the best time to be sure your home is safe. Contact the Red Cross to set up a Home Fire Campaign appointment. The rest is done for you, for free in about one hour. While you are doing that, consider encouraging other people to do the same. If you would like to be more involved in preventing disasters, considering joining the volunteer HFC team! Register today at redcross.org/homefire.