Seminole County firefighters and American Red Cross volunteers are teaming up during Fire Prevention Week to help keep Casselberry residents safe from home fires.
“Smoke alarms are your best defense in a fire,” said Sharon Gregory, public safety specialist with the Seminole County Fire Department.
Gregory said the urgency is real. “A fire these days can leave you less than two minutes to get out. That smoke alarm is going to alert you, let you know that there’s something happening and that you need to get out.”
The SCFD is partnering with the American Red Cross to host a Sound the Alarm event Saturday, Oct. 10, in a neighborhood near Wilshire Drive and S. Winter Park Drive in Casselberry. The event will offer free smoke alarm installations and home fire safety education to residents.
On Monday, firefighters and Red Cross volunteers began at the Casselberry Police Department and walked through the surrounding neighborhood, distributing door hangers with details about the Oct. 10 event.
On the day of the event, teams will return to inspect existing smoke alarms, install free smoke alarms where needed, and share home fire safety tips with residents.
The Oct. 10 event is expected to reach nearly 250 homes — and education will be a key component of the day’s work.
“We are going to be educating residents on lithium-ion battery fires, which unfortunately we’ve seen an uptick in recently due to the different types of batteries that everybody’s using,” Gregory said.
Gregory also offered practical guidance on smoke alarm maintenance. “Your smoke alarm should be tested once a month. They also need to be replaced, the batteries yearly, but now they make the lithium-ion battery smoke alarms. They cannot be replaced, the batteries, but the unit gets replaced every 10 years.”
The event is part of the American Red Cross Home Fire Campaign and its Sound the Alarm initiative — a nationwide effort that partners with fire departments and communities to help families prevent home fire tragedies.
Fire Prevention Week is observed Oct. 4–10. For more details about Seminole County’s outreach programs, click here.