By: Christopher Quinn, Public Affairs/Communications Volunteer

An American Red Cross national partner received a golden alarm after installing more than 1,000 free smoke alarms in Georgia, and they have five good reasons to keep going.

Five: that is how many people escaped possible death or injury when the alarms MIRA USA installed along with Red Cross staff and volunteers helped people escape fires.

“The idea of saving lives is really rewarding,” said Lina Muñoz, the Atlanta Branch Director for MIRA USA, which is a nonprofit offering financial, career and other training for Latino immigrants.

The organization had installed more than 730 alarms since 2019, and on June 1 volunteers surpassed the 1,000 mark, installing another 376, including three alarms for the deaf and hard of hearing.

“I think it’s one of the events (the volunteers) enjoy the most because they feel they are actually helping,” Muñoz said. “We are interacting with the community and visiting people, and people like to see the volunteers. They appreciate the work we do in their homes, thinking about them and bringing the alarms to them for free. It’s very fulfilling for me, too.”

In February 2019, a man escaped a fire in Rockdale County after his MIRA USA-installed alarm went off.

And last November, a family of four in Clayton County was watching TV when a candle in a bedroom started a fire. The smoke alarm installed by MIRA USA sounded, and the father stepped toward the bedroom to check it out, but the flames were already beyond control.

During a fire alarm installation, volunteers also give families information about developing escape plans, and the children in the home remembered what to do and began to tell the parents to leave and dial 911.

The Red Cross Sound the Alarm event has become so popular with volunteers from MIRA that more than 130 came to the June 1 drive in Norcross. The organization was presented with a “golden” alarm for its dedication to making homes safer with smoke alarms and fire safety education. MIRA also received recognition for the lives saved by alarms installed in the Clayton County home.

Fires are the most frequent disaster in the U.S. Fires claim seven lives and injure more than 30 people daily. The Red Cross launched the Home Fire Campaign in 2014 to reduce home fire-related deaths and injuries. With its community partners, the Red Cross has installed 2.8 million smoke alarms nationally and helped to make 1.1 million homes safer.

The smoke alarms are credited with helping save more than 2,100 lives nationally. Roughly one-third of them were children.

Capt. Ryan McGiboney of Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services knows the importance of smoke alarms.

“They increase your chances of survival by 50%,” he said. “They are watchdogs, if you will, watching for something to go wrong and alert us.

“After I moved into my house, the first thing I did was I went through it and checked that all the smoke alarms were working and in date,” said McGiboney. “We teach you that you want to replace smoke alarms if they are older than 10 years, and you want to test them every month. And if they are battery operated, a good rule of thumb is, when you change your clocks (in the spring and fall), you want to change your batteries.”

The Red Cross of Georgia, its dedicated volunteers, community partners and fire departments have saved at least 244 lives statewide as part of the Home Fire Campaign.

“We are incredibly grateful for the support of MIRA USA, especially in serving Latino communities. Home fires are a daily threat. We want to ensure everyone has access to the Home Fire Campaign and knows how to protect themselves and their loved ones from home fires,” said Kelly Sharon, Regional Disaster Preparedness and Partnership Program Manager.

If you need smoke alarms installed in your home, visit this Red Cross website. You can find more information about Sound the Alarm here.

Financial donations enable the Red Cross to prepare for, respond to and help people recover from disasters big and small. If you would like to make a donation to Red Cross Disaster Relief to help people affected by disasters like home fire, hurricanes, tornadoes and countless other crises, you can do so here.

About the American Red Cross:
The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides comfort to victims of disasters; supplies about 40% of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; distributes international humanitarian aid; and supports veterans, military members and their families. The Red Cross is a nonprofit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to deliver its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or CruzRojaAmericana.org, or follow us on social media.