NEW KENSINGTON, Pa. — After several fires in New Kensington, the volunteer fire department is partnering with the American Red Cross to give away free smoke detectors.
“In the last two weeks, we’ve had two very bad house fires in our city. Both occurred on a Sunday morning, early in the morning. Both of those homes, however, had working smoke detectors,” New Kensington Volunteer Fire Department Chief Ed Saliba said.
Saliba said the city has been plagued by bad fires for years.
“We had quite a few fires that were fatalities,” said Saliba. “And those places did not have working smoke detectors.”
Thankfully, the homes on McCargo Street and Kennedy Avenue had working smoke detectors. They lost belongings, not family members.
“Firefighters were on all of these streets from up there to down there, so it was just intense,” neighbor Nick Deiuliis said, recalling the fire on Kennedy Avenue.
The two fires pushed the chief to contact the American Red Cross through their “Sound the Alarm - Save a Life” program.
“Smoke detector is your first line of alertness to be able to exit a structure when there is a fire,” Saliba said.
Signs now cover the streets telling people that on April 18, the department and Red Cross will give away free smoke detectors and install them.
The department last offered this program in 2022. They installed over 400 detectors in five hours.
The chief hopes to break that record and save more lives.
“I’m sure that if we run out, there will be a list. We can get more to come out, and we’ll do the installs,” Saliba said.
To get a detector in your home, you can call 833-315-0882.
The chief said to call early so the team can schedule your installation before the event on April 18.
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