PECO, the American Red Cross of Southeastern Pennsylvania (SEPA), and the Philadelphia Fire Department are teaming up to remind everyone that turning back your clocks is also a great time to change the battery in your smoke detectors.
On Friday, March 12, at the Fire Administration Building, 240 Spring Garden Street, at 10:30 a.m., Eric Helt, Vice-President of Construction and Maintenance with PECO, Tom Foley, CEO of the SEPA Chapter, and Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers will hold a “Change Your Clock – Change Your Battery” event.
“We are honored to join with the Red Cross and the Philadelphia Fire Department to educate the community about fire safety,” said Helt. “We are a long time partner of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the Red Cross. Their local disaster relief efforts are unmatched.”
Last year, 30 Philadelphia residents died in fires and 21 of those deaths happened in homes that did not have a smoke alarm or the alarm had faulty or missing batteries.
“March is Red Cross Month, so this is an especially valuable time to remind the community about fire safety,” said SEPA Chapter CEO Tom Foley. “Since January 1, we have responded to more than 450 disasters, most of them fires. Many of the people we help survived because they had working smoke alarms, but unfortunately, too often, that’s not the case.”
“For the Fire Department, even one resident injured or killed is too many,” said Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers.
Following the event, volunteers from the American Red Cross SEPA Chapter and PECO will take part in a fire safety walk-through, passing out fire safety kits in a nearby neighborhood. Since the inception of the fire safety walk-through program, fire deaths have dropped 31%.
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