MLK Day 2013 – Fire Prevention and Emergency Preparedness in Mount Vernon

By Millen Asfaha, American Red Cross AmeriCorps member 

To mark this year’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service on January 21, AmeriCorps members from the American Red Cross Greater New York Region partnered with volunteers from HOPE worldwide, a local faith-based organization dedicated to community services initiatives. The one-day project targeted the south side of Mount Vernon, a small low-income town in Westchester County that has been affected by an unusually high incidence of fires in the past three years. The objective was to disseminate fire prevention and emergency preparedness information across the community. A total of 66 volunteers of all backgrounds and age groups, including 12 AmeriCorps members serving as team leaders, took part in the Day of Service.

Volunteers were welcomed with a warm introduction from HOPE worldwide’s Sylvia Sichone as well as the chief of the Griffin Valentino Fire House. Everyone was filled with enthusiasm and a sense of camaraderie as they split into 10 groups, each assigned to a different section of the south side area. Before heading out, all volunteers were provided with Be Red Cross Ready brochures and door hangers containing fire safety information for distribution throughout the neighborhood. Each AmeriCorps team leader was also given a tracking sheet to calculate the amount of materials handed out, the number of households visited, and the number of conversations conducted. 

The canvassing spanned about two hours long and was very successful despite the cold weather. The teams distributed approximately 883 materials to countless households throughout the area and volunteers engaged in vital fire prevention and preparedness conversations with Mount Vernon residents.

Many of the volunteers found that local community members were quite surprised by the initiative, a reaction which seemed to emphasize the need for more educational resources and future preparedness activities in the area. The day ended with a quick tour of the fire house before volunteers departed. Everyone involved showed great dedication to the project and it was satisfying to see the work that we accomplished during this Day of Service. We look forward to organizing similar events in the future.

“If they weren’t here, we don’t know what would have happened to us.”



Photo: E. Calderon/S. Johnson


Okisha Ashley, her four children and her grandmother, Nellie, who was visiting from the Island of Jamaica, were fast asleep in Okisha’s Walton Avenue apartment in the Bronx around 12:30 am on July 18 when they were awoken by someone kicking hard at the apartment door.

Alarmed, Okisha called the police. Then she looked out the window, saw fire trucks and heard a commotion. She immediately grabbed her kids and her grandmother and ran downstairs and out of the building.

“We didn’t bring anything,” she said, “just the cloths on our backs.”

Her entire apartment, her home for 33 years, was destroyed—her ceiling had collapsed as a result of all the water being used to put out the fire above.

“I had just remodeled my apartment—new furniture, a new TV,” said Okisha, “Everything is gone.”

They were, however, very glad to be safe.

“I was just thankful that we are all alive.”

After evacuating, they waited in a park across the street until the Red Cross set up a reception center at nearby All Hallows High School. There, they cooled down a bit, ate and waited.

At the center, a Red Cross responder told Okisha that she and her family were eligible for emergency housing at a hotel. Although grateful for the offer, they declined and stayed with a friend.

They did, however, come to Greater NY headquarters in Manhattan the next day where Red Cross caseworkers provided the family with emergency funds for clothing.

“My kids have been wearing the same thing since the fire,” said Okisha, “Because of the Red Cross, I’ll be able to buy them a change of clothes.”

The Red Cross also provided Okisha with information on how to obtain long-term housing while their apartment is being renovated.

“I didn’t know the Red Cross was so helpful,” said Okisha. “You would never think you would be in that situation; that’s how quick you can end up homeless. I really appreciate what the Red Cross did for us. If they weren’t here, we don’t know what would have happened to us.”

"When the Red Cross walked up I knew I could calm down."

by Gordon Williams

It's impossible to know in advance when disaster will strike—or to appreciate the degree of trauma and chaos victims will face when it does.

To Lew Eleanor McNeely, the scene was terrible when she returned from a Sunday morning outing with her 2½-year old granddaughter Angelina in mid-June to find her 10th floor Manhattan apartment engulfed in flames.

Firefighters were focused on battling the blaze; neighbors were themselves in shock and could not help ease her sense of panic and loss. No one was in a position to tell her what to do next. She had no food or diapers for the baby and almost no cash in her purse to buy more. She looked around the disaster scene and found herself alone.

“When you are in the eye of the storm, you need someone to guide and direct you,” she recalled. “But I felt I was on my own.”

Then two disaster responders from the American Red Cross—Cosmina Menghes and Tiara Youmans— arrived on the scene.

“When the Red Cross walked up I knew I could clam down. I knew they would have the answers for me. "It was like the parting of the waters,” Lew Eleanor said. “When they walked up, I knew I could calm down. I knew that someone would have the answers for me.”

Baby Angelina seemed fascinated by the responders’ Red Cross caps. They let Angelina play with one of the caps, which nicely distracted the infant. The crew began the process of registering Lew Eleanor into the system so Red Cross client services caseworkers could provide longer-term assistance. As they took control of the situation, Lew Eleanor felt her own sense of panic and hysteria drain away.

The Red Cross took care of her immediate needs for money to buy baby supplies by issuing a Client Assistance Card—a debit card that she could put to use almost immediately. The damage to the apartment was so great she could not spend the night there. The Red Cross provided her with emergency housing in a clean, safe lodging.

She visited the Red Cross offices in Manhattan and talked to a Red Cross representative about her longer-term needs. Luckily, the managers of her building were able to find her a new apartment almost at once. It helped that she has grown up in the building and that her father had been the building superintendent for 30 years.

It also helped that Lew Eleanor had been a valued tenant in the building—someone very special with a splendid work history and a lifetime filled with accomplishments. She not only spent 25 years teaching classes in adult literacy, but in the evenings she trained other teachers. Since retiring, she said, “I have tried to do everything on my bucket list."

She learned to swim, gave up smoking and taught herself Spanish. Next on the schedule is to travel to the Caribbean.

So the crisis is past and assistance from the Red Cross helped Lew put her life back together again. But there still are important lessons her experience can teach others.

The first is that disaster can strike anyone at any time. Lew Eleanor had spent a joyous day in the park with Angelina. They played in a playground, rode a carrousel, rolled down a grassy hill.

“It was a great, great day,” she said. “We were heading home, all grimy and grassy and sandy, toward what should have been a nap for Angelina and some feet-up rest time for grandma.”

Instead she found her street clogged with fire engines and her apartment in flames.

The second lesson is to be triply careful you are not doing things that could bring disaster to your door.

The night before the fire she had lighted a prayer candle on Saturday night and assumed it had burned itself out by Sunday morning.

But it looks as though the candle had not extinguished itself and was the apparent source of the fire.

“The prayer candle took the apartment,” she said ruefully. “But we weren’t home when the fire began and the baby was never in any danger. That is the real answer to all my prayers.”

Lew Eleanor McNeely—Manhattan

Burning Down the House

By Anita Salzberg

Are you out of your minds? You’re going to burn the house down! (Or, at the very least, the movie set.)

Long before I joined the Red Cross, this was my typical reaction to any scene in a movie or a TV show that featured a bubble bath, three dozen candles and a romantic liaison amid said bubble bath.

Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon in Bull Durham? Yes, that was a hot scene (pun intended).

But as I watched, I couldn’t quite tear my mind away from the practicalities of how they were going to get into the tub and have a wild and crazy time without knocking over a half dozen or so candles and causing a fire. Yes, bathrooms are full of tile and porcelain. Still, towels, curtains and walls are plenty flammable.

And think about it—there were probably six guys with fire extinguishers standing on that movie set, just outside the frame, in case the wrong kind of sparks started to go flying.

Since this is Fire Safety Week, that’s my point. Many people think candles are exactly the right thing to reach for during a power outage (to say nothing of an amorous assignation). Turns out, they’re exactly the wrong thing.

Red Cross urges everyone to use only flashlights for emergency lighting, and to never use candles due to extreme risk of fire during a power outage. If Red Cross had thought of it, it would probably say the same about a romantic tryst in a tub.

My Life in Disaster: Get Out and Stay Out! Then call 9-1-1

We are all extremely busy, and multitasking has become second nature. I can't remember the last time I cooked dinner without actually doing something else; talking on the phone, or opening bills, or checking email, and yes, that did include leaving the kitchen for a minute or two.

According to the Red Cross, unattended cooking is the cause of 90% of all kitchen fires, and cooking fires are the number one cause of home fires.

October is National Fire Prevention Month, and as if to emphasize the need for fire safety and prevention, the American Red Cross in Greater New York Region has already responded to close to 20 fires in the last week.

 A total of 93% of disasters responded to by the Red Cross are fire related. The Red Cross offers a fire prevention and safety checklist which is a must read. Print it out and give to a neighbor who doesn't have access to a computer. Translate it for them if you need to. You could help save a life.