VA Mobile Home Park Gets New Smoke Alarms

NEWPORT NEWS — Saturday was the first time in at least seven years that there was a working smoke detector inside the mobile home that 60-year-old Alan Wallace shares with a friend he takes care of.

It could have been longer than that, since Wallace moved in seven years ago and hadn't noticed one since then, he said. The 78-year-old woman he cares for has lived in the home for 30 years, he said.

On Saturday, volunteers with the American Red Cross canvassed Wallace's mobile home park, tucked behind the 12000 block of Jefferson Avenue, to offer free smoke detector installations and give fire safety tips to residents. Wallace was a rare case — he invited the volunteers into his home after spotting them on his way into the neighborhood.

"I heard about it on the news," Wallace said while volunteer Jason Yournet installed one of two new smoke detectors in the home. "My neighbors across the street said (the Red Cross) was out here two weeks ago but we missed it then. I stopped them today and asked if they could come by."

Usually, people shy away from opening their doors because they don't want to deal with strangers, said Lorri Powers, the executive director of the Red Cross's coastal Virginia chapter.

"That's why our volunteers are covered in signage that says Red Cross," Powers said.

Powers' team, one of five at the park on Saturday, installed detectors at two of 56 homes they had approached between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., she said. Many people just weren't home, while others didn't want to open up.

By the end of the day, the volunteers had installed a total of 58 detectors. Each home can take require between one to three detectors, Powers said.

If volunteers are invited into homes, one person installs the smoke detectors while another goes over fire safety tips with the homeowner. Volunteer Kelsie Sloan went over the basics with Wallace of how to prevent a fire and what to do if there is one, like deciding on a meeting place if they have to evacuate.

She gave him a magnetic board to stick on the fridge that outlines a general floor plan of the home so that he can devise a good exit strategy in the event of a fire.

The Red Cross says that on average, seven people die each day in the United States from a residential fire. The home-to-home routine is part of a national Red Cross effort that began in the fall of 2014, Powers said. The goal is reduce residential fire-related deaths by 25 percent in the next five years, she said.

Powers' group plans on going to neighborhoods in Portsmouth and Chesapeake in the next month. She hoped that the more the word gets out, the more willing people will be in letting volunteers test their smoke detectors or install new ones.

"For seven years (Wallace) has been living here, and no smoke detector — that's terrible," Sloan said. "That's scary to me because people think it can't happen. They got the it-can't-happen-to-me syndrome. It's always better to be informed and have a plan."

Amin can be reached by phone at 757-247-4890.

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