By Gordon Williams

Nancy Armstrong of Belfair, Washington, was snug in bed on a chilly night last January, when a clanging jarred her awake. “I was sound asleep,” she recalls. “It took a bit of time to make sense of that annoying sound.”

The sound was, in fact, a smoke alarm, alerting her to fire in her home. Jumping out of bed and racing from bedroom to living room, she found the front of the house engulfed in flames—triggered by a space heater that had caught fire

Nancy did manage to escape the blaze, but with burns severe enough to send her to the hospital. All her possessions were lost, and her dog perished in the fire. The fire department was called, but was at work at another fire and was slow to respond. There was no way to save the house. “It was a total ruin,” Nancy says.

These days, Nancy lives with her daughter. She mourns for her lost dog and her life's possessions lost in the blaze. Her burns have mostly healed, but emotional scars from the fire remain. For all that she lost, Nancy is comforted by one thought: Though she suffered pain and loss, she survived the fire because her house was equipped with a smoke alarm. Asked if the smoke alarm saved her life, she responds, “Without a doubt.”

That’s a message that should be taken to heart by anyone whose dwelling lacks a smoke alarm. They do save lives. Statistics from the National Fire Protection Assn. Say you are 60 percent less likely to die in a home fire if you are protected by a smoke alarm. It is for that reason that the American Red Cross launched its Home Fire Campaign in 2014. The aim is to save lives by installing smoke alarms as widely as possible, and by teaching home residents lessons in fire safety

Since the Home Fire Campaign began, the Red Cross has installed more than 2 million smoke alarms. Those alarms have saved more than 2,000 lives.  As it happens, Nancy’s smoke alarm was purchased commercially and not through the Red Cross. Nancy isn’t sure when her alarm was purchased, but thinks it was by her parents “a long time ago.” However, the alarm had working batteries because Nancy's grandson Daniel heard the device chirping and replaced the batteries a few months before the fire.

The point here isn't where the alarm came from, but that the home had a working smoke alarm when needed, with batteries fresh enough to do their job. That there was a working smoke alarm made it possible to interview a living, breathing Nancy Armstrong. Instead of writing about one of the nearly 3,000 people who perish in home fires each year. 

The warning about smoke is timely because we are deeply into what has come to be known as Sound the Alarm season. Sound the Alarm is the action side of the Home Fire campaign. Home Fire runs year-round, but Sound the Alarm (STA) is a concentrated push every spring in communities where the lack of alarms is dire.

Red Cross volunteers focus on a handful of communities, seeking out homes without working alarms. Once the homes are found, teams install alarms and hand out fire safety information. Prime STA target this year is Spokane in Eastern Washington. Last year’s prime target was Aberdeen on the Pacific Coast. Additional cities involved in STA events this year include Bremerton, Lyndon, Wenatchee, and Finley. In a typical event, volunteers fanned out in Bremerton on a recent weekend, intending to outfit 100 homes with working alarms.

To learn more about STA and Home Fires in your locale, visit your local Red Cross office or go to soundthealarm.org. In some areas, Red Cross workers are available year-round for smoke alarm installation.

If you do have smoke alarms in your house, make sure they are working. Home batteries should be replaced at least once a year. One way to make certain they are working is to install fresh batteries each time you change time, moving to and from daylight time.

Wherever the alarms come from, follow advice from the Red Cross on where to install them to give yourself the most protection.