There’s very little time to get out of your home safely during a fire.

Working smoke alarms can cut the risk of dying in a home fire by half by alerting you to a fire sooner. You should place them on each level of your home, and inside and outside bedrooms.

But there are many people who can’t afford smoke alarms or aren’t able to install alarms themselves. That’s where the Red Cross comes in with its Home Fire Campaign work.

Working with partners, the Red Cross installs free smoke alarms and shares fire safety information in at-risk communities. Since the campaign launched in 2014, our volunteers and partners have helped save lives by installing more than 2.3 million smoke alarms.

Last year in Kansas and Oklahoma, we installed nearly 3,000 free smoke alarms. Those alarms, together with information offered during their installation, mean 1,500 families are safer in their homes.

GRANDMOTHER MORE AT EASE

Angel Marshall enjoys having her six grandchildren at her house. The kids range in age from 3 to 13 years old and sometimes stay nights or weekends with her. When Red Cross volunteers visited Angel to install free smoke alarms in her home, four of the kids were there, wrapping up a stay with her.

Angel told the installation team why she needed smoke alarms.

“Once I lost my sense of smell, it was scary,” Angel said.

She told the team about a recent time she left something on the stove and couldn’t smell it burning.

“I was boiling an egg, and I forgot about it. I came back to a living room full of smoke,” Angel said.

Angel said with three new smoke alarms, she feels much more at ease when her grandchildren are with her.

OLDER COUPLE SECURE AT HOME

Vietnam veteran Norman Powdrill retired from his job at the local newspaper’s printing press. He and his wife, Lucille, live in a simple, one-story brick house with white siding and shutters. A lifetime of memories greets visitors when they enter. Photos of their family throughout the years—kids, parents, grandparents and more distant relatives, captured in black and white and in color—hang neatly in more than a dozen frames on the wall across the living room from the front door.

Norman and Lucille’s home doesn’t have smoke alarms. Red Cross volunteers installed two: one at the end of their hallway and outside all the bedrooms, and one in the room at the back of the house, off their kitchen. Volunteers also took the time to help Norman and Lucille make a plan to get out of their home in case there is a fire—and to talk and laugh with them, leaving the couple not only safer in their home, but also with smiles on their faces.

“We saw on the news that this was happening this morning, and now we got smoke alarms. Thank you all for stopping by,” Norman said.

WE’RE THERE WHEN THE WORST HAPPENS

The Red Cross works hard to prepare communities for disasters, including home fires. After a home fire, Red Cross volunteers work with local fire departments to connect with families for needs like emergency lodging, financial assistance and emotional support. Your financial support makes all of this possible.

This holiday season, consider turning your compassion into action with a gift to the Red Cross. Visit redcross.org/holiday to get started.

About the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40% of the nation's blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or CruzRojaAmericana.org, or visit us on Twitter at @RedCross.