“My mom is 82 years old and her smoke detector was not working,” says Barb Fowler, Normal, Ill., resident. “She’s had a stroke since we made the appointment to get it installed. Now we want to get everything in order for her to come home and recover.”

Sound the Alarm home fire safety and smoke alarm installation events are part of the Home Fire Campaign with the American Red Cross. During a recent effort in Bloomington and Normal, Ill., volunteers worked alongside fire departments and other local groups to canvass at-risk neighborhoods to install free smoke alarms, replace batteries in existing alarms, educate families about fire prevention and safety and fundraise.

State Farm^® partners with the American Red Cross for the Sound the Alarm campaign to educate community members on fire safety while providing a free smoke alarm to help keep them safe in the future. State Farm has provided charitable support to the American Red Cross and chapters throughout the country for the past 30 years, totaling more than $37 million, including investing in the Annual Disaster Giving Program.

State Farm associates volunteered at 51 events in 17 states, installing 10,718 smoke alarms and making 4,853 homes safer this year.

“The video the firefighter presented during training and interactions we had with people throughout the event made me realize how starting a fire and causing mass destruction could happen quickly. But preventing and keeping our families, friends and people in our community safe is a duty for us all,” says Smit Shah, State Farm employee and volunteer.

This year, the American Red Cross' national efforts to install free smoke alarms and educate residents on fire safety have made more than 50,000 households safer. More than 120,000 smoke alarms were installed across more than 100 at-risk communities.

Bev Kilmartin, Normal resident, saw an ad in the local newspaper about the program.

“The batteries went out on my old smoke alarms, and I realized we’d had them for at least 10 years. When I replaced the batteries, I noticed it wasn’t working correctly, so I decided to call and make an appointment,” Bev says.

“As a widow, it gives me a sense of security,” she adds. “If there is this type of program available, we should take advantage of it.”

“Everyone we encountered was friendly and appreciated us coming to assist them with this task,” says Tim Trunnell, State Farm employee and volunteer. “It was a great way to give back to the community and have fun.”

Normal resident Joe Nicklin contacted the Red Cross for an installation appointment because he knew his smoke alarm wasn’t working properly.

“When I light a fire in my fireplace and smoke gets into the house, the alarm doesn’t go off. That made me feel anxious,” he says. “I sleep with a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine, so I sleep pretty soundly. I needed some peace of mind.”

“After visiting the homes and installing alarms, it makes you realize how unaware people are of the importance of smoke alarms and how these inexpensive devices can help save a precious life,” Smit says.

State Farm^® partnered with the Red Cross on a campaign to educate citizens across the United States on fire safety and install free smoke alarms. Along with local fire departments and other community partners, more than 100,000 smoke alarms were installed in homes across the country.

Ashleigh Brucker has always had a passion for public safety and education. While in college, she interned with the Champaign Fire Department as safety educator.

“I really love the parts of State Farm that are community driven, people driven and focused on making life go right, so when I saw this opportunity to volunteer I immediately signed up,” the State Farm employee in Bloomington, Ill., says.

During the event, volunteers were divided into small groups with one person focused on getting the household details, one person giving safety information and the others checking current smoke alarms or installing new alarms.

Ashleigh took charge of the education portion for her group. The education packets included a checklist about fire safety such as cooking safety and electrical safety, planning escape routes and how and when to check your smoke alarms to ensure they are working correctly.

“It was so awesome that people were willing to open their doors to us,” Ashleigh says. “We often don’t take time out of our busy lives to think about these things.”

Through 426 Sound the Alarm events, with at least one organized in each state, 43,008 homes were made safer with the help of 30,859 volunteers.

Sonja Campbell-Jones, a State Farm employee in Dunwoody, Ga., used the opportunity to network in her new community. “I consider myself a new Georgia resident, even though I’ve been here for five years. I saw this as a great way to get involved and give back to communities at risk,” she says.

Volunteers canvassed at-risk neighborhoods during their events and found many people to be open and appreciative of the services.

Shakema Green, who works for State Farm in Richardson, Texas, and her 16-year-old daughter, Micaiah, often volunteer together.

“I want her to see through volunteering how other families are in different situations,” Shakema says of bringing her daughter to volunteer events. “No one wants to be down and out; no one wants to be in need. If it was me, I’d want someone to help me or educate me. So, it’s me teaching her to not take for granted what you have and to not look down on others who don’t.”

Eleven days later, the house burnt down when a candle caught a box of clothing on fire. Luckily, the smoke alarm sounded in one of the bedrooms. The entire family escaped to safety thanks to their gift from the Red Cross and State Farm.

Home Fire Preparedness Arms Families

The American Red Cross Home Fire Preparedness Campaign rolled out across the country in October, 2014. The goal? To reduce the number of deaths and injuries from home fires by as much as 25 percent over the next five years by installing smoke alarms for families who need them.

Across the country, the Red Cross, along with local fire departments and community groups, are canvassing neighborhoods and teaching people about fire safety.

It was a cold March day in Owasco, New York but Lynn Smith’s heart was warm with love. Like most grandparents, there is nothing more special than spending time with her grandchildren.

Her daughter Kelly came up for the weekend from New York City with her girls, Olivia, four, and baby Mila, 10 months. Lynn’s son, Stephen, who lives nearby, came with his three girls. It was a packed house.

Lynn turned on the portable heater in the back bedroom where baby Mila would sleep since it was so cold outside. Everyone went to bed exhausted after a long day of driving and playing.

At 2:00 a.m. Kelly woke up to baby Mila crying. She went into the back bedroom, scooped up Mila, and brought her into bed. Both fell back to sleep.

At 5:30 a.m. Lynn was half awake when she heard the hallway smoke detector. She initially thought the battery was low but at the same time the ADT smoke alarm was going off. It got louder and louder.

Lynn jumped out of bed and ran to the room with the portable heater. There was a chemical smell in the air. Lynn’s daughter Kelly woke up too. At first she wasn’t worried but then her mom came bursting into the bedroom.

Kelly ran into the room where baby Mila had been sleeping and saw the portable heater was on fire. The flames were already a foot high.

Kelly had Mila in her arms and ran into the room where her daughter Olivia was sleeping. She woke up Olivia, grabbed her hand, and made it out of the front door. Kelly’s eyes were stinging from the smoke but the family was out of the house safely.

Nearly 800 miles away, ADT Dispatcher Amanda Willoughby started her 4 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. shift at ADT’s Knoxville, TN monitoring center. Her job requires her to be calm and ready to assist customers should a monitor go off.

At approximately 5:30 a.m. she received an alarm notification from the ADT system at the home of Lynn Smith. She immediately contacted the fire department to report an emergency.

At the same time Kelly was calling 911 to report the fire, Lynn received an incoming call.

“This is Amanda with ADT security. Is everything okay there?”

Amanda asked if everybody was out of the house and informed Lynn the fire department would arrive shortly. Within minutes, Owasco Fire Department trucks and ambulances were on scene. Thanks to the quick response, the fire only had time to scorch the bedroom carpet and blacken the walls in half the house.

Being Thankful

“We could have slept through it. The smoke could have killed us,” shared Lynn.

State Farm Agent Ray Haynes was also thankful too. As an insurance agent, he knows how devastating a fire can be for a homeowner and was very relieved his customer Lynn and her family were safe.

On April 22, 2016, six weeks after the fire, ADT held an event at Smith's home. ADT presented the company's highest honor, the LifeSaver Award, to Willoughby and the technicians who installed the home's alarm system. The company flew Willoughby in from Knoxville, TN so she could not only accept the award, but also meet Lynn Smith personally.

ADT and State Farm representatives presented $10,000 to the Owasco Fire Department for its efforts that day. Fire Chief Chris Morabito said the grant will fund the purchase of an air compressor to fill firefighters' bottles before they enter dangerous environments like the one at the Smith home.

"Every two and a half hours, someone in America dies in a house fire," Morabito said at the event. "Smoke detectors are a definite need in every house. If you can hook it up to a center like ADT that makes it even better because you know you're getting somebody to call you back and make sure everything is good."

To learn more about an ADT special offer for State Farm customers, visit the ADT Home Security website or State Farm Home Protection & Automation. Homeowners and renters may qualify for the Home Alert Protection Discount. Contact your State Farm agent for details.

Check out the ADT blog about Lynn’s story.

When a house fire killed a family whose children had attended a fire safety lesson just two months prior, Clarksburg, WV Fire Captain Cindy Murphy decided those lessons weren’t enough.

“It absolutely broke my heart somebody I had talked to about smoke detectors was not able to make it out of their home,” said Murphy, “I didn’t want another child to die in a fire [because they didn’t have one].”

According to the National Fire Protection Association, “three out of five home fires resulted from fires in properties without working smoke alarms.”

Determined to steer clear of any further preventable deaths, Murphy created Operation Not One More. With 850 first graders in the county, she made it her goal to equip these children and their homes with 10-year smoke detectors—to provide “silent guardians” to watch over them.

When the call to action went out, the donations poured in. To date, she has already provided almost 900 smoke detectors—exceeding her goal and saving more lives in the process. Adds Murphy, “I could not have accomplished this by myself.”

Her next step is to create a public service campaign that will ensure proper installation of the detectors. It’s no use “if they are still sitting in a bag at the kid’s house,” says Murphy. She wants to make sure all of the alarms are up and running.

With these detectors, the children will be teens before they have to worry about changing a battery. The tamper-resistant alarm prevents family members from taking out the battery and forgetting to put it back in—a major cause of house fire-related injuries and deaths.