Red Cross and Partners Save Lives Through the Home Fire Campaign

In the early evening of Dec. 14, 2019, in Memphis, Mary Wallace, gathered with friends to watch a wrestling match when smoke alarms sounded, alerting them to a home fire. Wallace used her home fire escape plan from a visit from volunteers of the American Red Cross to get everyone out safely.   

Just eight months before, the family took part in an in-home visit on April 30 when Red Cross volunteers installed three smoke alarms in their home. Volunteers then helped the family develop a home fire escape plan and reviewed a home fire safety checklist. Wallace was so appreciative of the Red Cross she asked that the Red Cross visit her family in their new home to install smoke alarms and review home fire escape planning. The same volunteer, Ron Killebrew, who installed the alarms in the home that burned in 2019, did the alarm installation in her new home this July. Killebrew’s visit marked more than 914,800 households made safe by the Red Cross since 2014. 916 lives have been saved through efforts nationwide.

Mary Wallace with Red Cross Disaster Program Manager Abigail Okui

Volunteer Ron Killebrew