Your Red Cross Update

Almost 50 volunteers from the Silicon Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross met at Fire Station Number 3 on Martha Street in San Jose on a rainy morning this past Saturday. After remarks by Captain Bien Doan of the San Jose Fire Department and superb training by Liz Dietz, Terry Unter, and Doug Moses-Batson, the teams — in spite of the rainy weather — visited a total of 52 homes in County Fair Mobile Estates and Village of the Four Seasons, in San Jose. The work was done as a part of the ongoing Red Cross “Sound The Alarm” activities.

The volunteers were divided into teams to install smoke alarms and provide training in several areas.

The team Educator helped families create an escape plans and learn about local safety hazards such as earthquakes and how to be prepared for them.

Each team had an installer responsible for the actual installation and an educator who provided training about the alarms, fire, and earthquake safety and the importance of escape routes. A documenter, who recorded the number of alarms installed and demographics of each family, rounded out the team.

The event was a great success in part due to the tremendous job of advance canvassing undertaken by Captain Doan.  Canvassing continued during the event with additional residents asking for the alarms before the event ended in the afternoon.

Overall, volunteers served almost 200 residents in over 70 homes and installed almost 170 smoke alarms.

The Red Cross responds to nearly 64,000 disasters a year, the majority of which are home fires. Working smoke alarms in a home cut the risk of death in half, and having an escape plan further improves the odds of survival. The Red Cross wants to end these tragedies and save lives; that’s why we launched the Home Fire Campaign in 2014.