New York City Launches Program to Distribute 100,000 Smoke Detectors

Prompted by a tragic fire that took the lives of seven children in Brooklyn earlier this year, New York City is joining forces with the Red Cross, and a smoke detector manufacturer, in an effort to get 100,000 of the devices installed in city homes over the next two years.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and others announced the $4 million initiative on Monday. It’s called #GetAlarmedNYC. The American Red Cross will provide much of the on-the-ground organizational and volunteer support needed to carry out the effort, which will attempt to use fire incident data to target city communities that are most in need of smoke detectors.

The program is open to all New Yorkers in all neighborhoods, and is being billed as the largest of its kind anywhere in the U.S. It will not only involve handing out free smoke alarms but also having volunteers install them in people’s homes at no cost.

Smoke detector manufacturer Kidde is donating about half the smoke alarms.

Also providing significant financial support is the FDNY Foundation, which is the official nonprofit organization of the New York City Fire Department.

“While the city has dramatically reduced the number of fire deaths we see annually, the fact is people—especially the very young and old—continue to die in fires,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday, according to a statement from the Mayor’s Office.

“We’re launching this program because we know it will save lives,” he added.

Devices Seen as Key for Preventing Fire Deaths

Getting smoke detectors into more homes is seen as a crucial step toward preventing deaths in residential fires.

The National Fire Protection Association noted in a report issued in September that fatality rates in fires are about twice as high in homes without functional smoke alarms, compared to homes where the devices are installed and working.

And, in New York City, the fire department’s fire investigations bureau has found that about 70 percent of fire fatalities in recent years have happened in residences that either did not have a smoke detector installed or had one with missing or dead batteries.

The deputy commissioner of public information for the city’s fire department, Frank Gribbon, said by phone on Tuesday that so far this year 50 people have died in fires in New York City and that 40 of those fatalities occurred in places without working smoke alarms.

He also noted that deaths from fire are at historically low levels in New York City. But Gribbon also said: “Our goal is to have no deaths.”

The deadly fire in Brooklyn earlier this year took place in the borough’s Midwood section in March. Smoke detectors were not found on the main floors of the house where it happened.

Similar Efforts Unfolding Nationwide

New York is not the only place where a push is underway to get more smoke detectors installed.

Last October, the American Red Cross decided to prioritize its work around fire prevention and fire safety in the U.S. In about one year's time, the organization's Home Fire Campaign has led to over 125,000 smoke alarm installations in homes in all 50 states.

“The Red Cross assists with around 70,000 disasters across the country every year, and the vast majority are home fires,” said Michael de Vulpillieres, communications officer for the Greater New York Region of the American Red Cross.

The organization is looking to reduce fire deaths and injuries by 25 percent over the next five years, de Vulpillieres said.

Meanwhile, New Orleans, earlier this year, launched a door-to-door outreach effort guided by a predictive statistical model, which is meant to focus the distribution of smoke detectors in communities where households are least likely to have them installed and most likely to suffer from structural fires.

Similar to New York, awareness was raised about the importance of smoke detectors in New Orleans after a heartbreaking fire in 2014 took the lives of five people, including three children, in a residence that did not have working smoke alarms.

In September, a New York company, Enigma, released an online analytics tool meant to identify granular areas within 178 U.S. cities that are least likely to have smoke detectors installed. People at the company had helped with the predictive analytics effort in New Orleans.

The New York City initiative will rely on data from the fire department and the Red Cross to guide outreach. “We are using data about fires, and specifically fires where people get killed or injured,” the fire department’s Gribbon said.

Significant Outreach Planned

As part of the New York program, large-scale events involving volunteer staff will take place around the city on a month-to-month basis in communities that have seen large numbers of home fires, or fatal fires, according to the Red Cross’ de Vulpillieres.

Outreach, some of it through community groups and religious organizations, will be carried out before these events are held. The idea is to raise awareness about the availability of the smoke alarms and to get installation appointments scheduled in advance of the events.

“The ideal situation is that we have hundreds of scheduled appointments on that day, and we can go in and install hundreds and hundreds, if not 1,000-plus smoke alarms,” de Vulpillieres said. “The more scheduled appointments we have, it makes it easier.”

On the day of the large-scale events, volunteers will not only install smoke detectors in homes where people have scheduled appointments. They will also do door-to-door canvassing to see if households have working smoke detectors in place and to discuss fire safety with residents.

Residents can get information about how to get an alarm through the city’s 311 service, and by phone or online through the Red Cross. The fire department and the Red Cross will also plan to hold “table events” around the city where people can make appointments for installations.

How the Costs Break Down

In an email on Tuesday, fire department spokesman Frank Dwyer explained that, of the initiative’s $4 million of funding, $1 million was allotted by the New York City Council, and another $1 million is from the FDNY Foundation. The other $2 million is being donated by Kidde and the Red Cross.

Gribbon also provided a rough description of the program’s costs, including the purchase of the detectors, which retail for about $30 each, training costs for Red Cross volunteers who will do installations, and paying part-time fire department safety education workers who will do outreach and education with the Red Cross volunteers. There are also some administrative costs and expenses for supplies, such as drills, ladders and safety goggles.

Costs aside, the benefits have the potential to be important.

According to de Vulpillieres, the American Red Cross Home Fire Campaign has helped save at least 26 lives.

“Smoke alarms save lives,” de Vulpillieres said. “There’s a really large percentage of fire deaths that could be prevented if there’s proper use of a smoke detector.”