Unfortunately, for many Americans, 2016 was a year marred by a record number of fire-related disasters.
Many of these disasters you saw on TV newscasts, like the deadly wildfire that reached the popular resort town of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Fueled by strong wind gusts and the area's worst drought in nearly a decade, the massive blaze forced over 14,000 people to evacuate and tragically left 14 people dead. The Red Cross cared for thousands in shelters and will remain on the ground in Gatlinburg in the weeks and months ahead to ensure affected people have access to the resources they need to get back on their feet.
If you've never experienced a fire, they're horrific. The before and after pictures of Gatlinburg posted on the Fox21 News website speak for themselves.
Gatlinburg was far from the only wildfire this year. As of this writing, there were 60,601 wildfires reported in the United States in 2016 - the greatest number of wildfires our country has experienced in a single year since 2011.
There were also fires we saw like the one that broke out at the "Ghost Ship" warehouse in Oakland, California killing 36 people. The Ghost Ship fire is now the deadliest structure fire in California since the 1906 earthquake when fire killed hundreds in San Francisco. Nearly 150 Red Crossers established a Family Assistance Center to receive friends and family members affected by the Ghost Ship fire and provide much needed services for families and first responders.
But the fires you probably don't see on the news are home fires; yet home fires kill more people annually than any other disasters the Red Cross responds to. Families are forced to run from their dwellings, often with only the clothes on their backs, and see their homes go up in blaze and sometimes every bit of personal property and irreplaceable mementoes completely gone or badly damaged by flames, heat, smoke, and water. As the Fire Department puts out the fire and rolls up their hoses, Red Cross volunteers show up on the lawn of the survivors to put a blanket around their shoulders, give them something warm to drink, provide a stuffed animal for their child, a place to stay and the assistance they need to get through the worst night of their lives and to get back on their feet.
Sadly, home fires are especially prevalent during this festive time. Whether its fires that occur in the kitchen as families gather to cook holiday meals, or candles left unattended, frayed strings of lights or other hazards, each year, nearly 47,000 fires occur during the winter holidays - claiming more than 500 lives.
But fortunately, home fires are largely preventable. The Red Cross provides many ways for your family to be spared from the tragedy of a home fire, and I urge you to visit www.redcross.org to read our holiday fire safety tips and learn more about what you can do to make sure your household is prepared for a home fire.
To help ensure all households are better prepared for home fires, the Red Cross launched a national Home Fire Campaign. With our community partners, we are going into vulnerable communities across the country to make sure residents have a working smoke alarm, and reviewing evacuation plans for families in case a fire occurs. Since we launched this campaign in October of 2014, we've been active in more than 8,400 towns and cities across the U.S. and have installed nearly 620,000 free smoke alarms, Best of all, the campaign has already resulted in 131 confirmed lives saved.
As we move forward this year, the Red Cross is excited to continue our work on preventing home fires and saving lives with a number of tremendous partners -- from local fire departments and Boy Scout troops, to small businesses and major corporations, and even the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team -- as we strive to reach our goal of one million smoke alarms installed by October 2017.
2016 was a year filled with far too many fire-related disasters. Let's all do our part to make sure 2017 is not the same.
Best wishes for a Happy and Safe New Year from all of us at the American Red Cross.