Eugene Springfield Fire is launching our first component of a multi-faceted Community Risk Reduction Program in partnership with the American Red Cross, Oregon Office of State Fire Marshal and the Springfield Elks.
Community Risk Reduction (CRR) is a process to identify and prioritize local risks, followed by the integrated and strategic investment of resources (emergency response and prevention) to reduce their occurrence and impact.
One identified priority is to have working smoke alarms is every residence, a goal shared with our partners at the American Red Cross. Working smoke alarms are often an assumed level of safety. When looking at Oregon's residential fire fatalities, smoke alarms were present in 49% of cases, however only 37% of them were working at the time of the fire. Many people simply do not know that smoke alarms should be replaced every 10 years.
Our communities rely on us in their greatest times of need and trust us as experts in our field. With resources from our partners the American Red Cross, Oregon Office of the State Fire Marshal and the Springfield Elks, we are able to share that expertise when we are in homes in our community. Eugene Springfield Fire crews will offer to check smoke alarms while they are at residences for calls for service and install smoke alarms in homes that need them. Red Cross volunteers will be available to residents by appointment and through door-to-door canvassing events to install smoke alarms for free in homes that need them and provide fire safety and emergency preparedness education.
We are grateful to our partners, the American Red Cross, Springfield Elks and Oregon Office of the State Fire Marshal. By working together, combining resources of funding, supplies, materials and time we can make our community safer, one residence at a time. We will follow state and national guidelines for recommended smoke alarm placement and replacement.
Eugene Springfield Fire, American Red Cross and Springfield Elks representatives will be addressing the media on Friday, April 7 at 1100 at Eugene Fire Administration, 1705 W. 2nd Ave.