The American Red Cross Home Fire Campaign will visit Beaver Meadows in Carbon County at 9

a.m.Feb. 18to install smoke alarms in homes that need them and teach people about what they can do now to be prepared should a fire break out in their home.Seven times a day someone in this country dies in a fire. The Red Cross Home Fire Campaign aims to reduce deaths and injuries from home fires by as much as 25 percent over the next few years. The Red Cross partners with fire departments and community groups across the country to install smoke alarms in communities with high numbers of fires and encourage everyone to practice their fire escape plans.Anyone interested in volunteering on Feb. 18 should call 570-476-3896 or email

cori.mancuso2@redcross.org. Volunteers will meet at 9 a.m. at the Beaver Meadows borough building on Broad Street. Snacks will be provided in the morning with lunch served after the installations."Installing smoke alarms cuts the risk of someone dying from a home fire in half, so we're joining with groups from across our community to install smoke alarms," said Michele Baehr, executive director for the American Red Cross Pocono Mountains chapter. "We also will be teaching people how to be safe from home fire."Simple steps to save livesEven as the Red Cross and other groups install smoke alarms in some neighborhoods, they are calling on everyone to take two simple steps that can save lives: create and practice their home fire escape plan and check their smoke alarms.There are several things families and individuals can do to increase their chances of surviving a fire:• If someone doesn't have smoke alarms, install them. At a minimum, put one on every level of the home, inside bedrooms and outside sleeping areas. Local building codes vary and there may be additional requirements where someone lives.• If someone does have alarms, test them today. If they don't work, replace them.• Make sure that everyone in the family knows how to get out of every room and how to get out of the home in less than two minutes.• Practice that plan. What's the household's escape time?What people can doPeople can visit redcross.org/homefires to find out more about how to protect themselves and their loved homes from fire. They can become a Red Cross volunteer by contacting the Red Cross at 570-476-3800. They can also help by donating to Red Cross Disaster Relief by visiting redcross.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS or texting the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Donations to Disaster Relief will be used to prepare for, respond to and help people recover from disasters big and small. Red Cross responds to nearly 64,000 other disasters every year and most of these are home fires.