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Red Cross teams up with Paterson to reduce home fire injuries and fatalities | Paterson Times

Red Cross teams up with Paterson to reduce home fire injuries and fatalities

Home-Fire-Preparedness-Campaign-Paterson-Installation

The city and the Red Cross have partnered to prevent fire related injuries and fatalities in local homes by teaching families about fire safety and equipping homes with free smoke alarms.

Since February, Red Cross volunteers have been visiting city homes to help residents better prepare against fire and help them develop a fire escape plan. The Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters also installed free smoke alarms in homes.

“We at the Red Cross are pleased to bring the Home Fire Preparedness Campaign to Paterson,” Steven Sarinelli, regional disaster officer for the American Red Cross North Jersey Region, said. “We are grateful to the City of Paterson, the Office of Emergency Management, the Paterson Fire Department and the Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters, whose support has been instrumental to the success of this potentially lifesaving fire safety initiative.”

So far the ongoing campaign has reached 59 families with fire safety information and conducted 218 smoke alarm installation for families that needed them.

“Fires inflict devastating tolls on families and communities, it is our responsibility to do our part in preventing them in our homes and our cities,” Mayor Jose ‘Joey’ Torres said. “As Mayor of the City of Paterson and on behalf of its citizens, we are grateful to the Red Cross and the Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters for their generosity in installing smoke alarms and urge Paterson residents to recommit to taking steps to reduce the risk of fire in their homes.”

In October, the Red Cross launched the Home Fire Preparedness Campaign in New Jersey and around the country to cut fire related injuries and deaths by 25-percent over the next five years. Since the launch 2,700 homes have been canvased in high fire-risk cities such as East Orange, Perth Amboy, Jersey City, Orange, Linden, Trenton, and Paterson. 1,400 smoke alarms were installed at homes in those cities.

“Together we can take meaningful steps and make the difference,” Torres said.

For a free smoke alarm installation city residents may contact the Paterson Office of Emergency Management (OEM) at (973)321-1410 to schedule an installation appointment.

  • John Smith

    Hope the city and the Red Cross are telling people to change the battery when the smoke alarm starts giving that annoying "beep" signal every minute or so.

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