When the call comes into the Central Firehouse and the trucks roll to a location in Peekskill, it is frequently a house fire. As firefighters are putting out flames, another call goes out, to the American Red Cross’s Disaster Action Teams, because people are now homeless and in need of assistance. 

The numbers for Peekskill are sobering: 13 fires, 77 houses, and 167 people displaced since January of 2021 according to the Red Cross. Most recently, that scenario played out in Peekskill twice in the past four months when two structure fires  rendered more than 44 people without a home. 

Because of those numbers, Peekskill was selected as the site of a “Sound the Alarm” volunteer effort to place smoke alarm detectors in homes for free this Saturday, March 23 from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Red Cross volunteers and community members gather at the Peekskill Central Firehouse and spread out throughout the city with smoke alarms, ladders and manpower to install the devices in people’s homes. There is no criteria to have an alarm installed other than needing it. New York State law requires that every bedroom have one smoke alarm. 

In the ten years “Sound the Alarm” has been in existence the Red Cross said 2,000 lives have been saved. They have installed three million alarms in one million homes since 2014. Last year New Rochelle was designated as a “Sound the Alarm” city where they installed 239 alarms, making 72 homes safer. 

While alarms are being installed and tested in bedrooms, kitchens, tv rooms, sleeping areas, and hallways, another volunteer is showing the people living in the house how to get out of the house, if there is a fire, in under two minutes. Working smoke alarms can cut the risk of death from home fires in half.  

“It’s a way to interact with the community when they are calm and not in a crisis situation,” said Fred Klein of the Red Cross, Metropolitan area.  

To schedule  an appointment for the free smoke alarm installation go to SoundTheAlarm.org/mnyn or call (845) 673-1198.