Cleveland Woman Donates 560 Smoke Alarms with Insurance Money

A woman whose father died in a house fire bought 560 smoke alarms to help firefighters with a new public safety campaign.

Kathleen Federer, 44, used $2,885 from insurance on her father’s house to purchase the alarms.

The devices will be donated to the Vanguards, a group of black Cleveland firefighters whose goal is to install free smoke alarms in every home in the city, particularly those housing children and the elderly.

“I was so sad about my dad’s death, because it would be my first Christmas without him. But, boy, did I start feeling better once I bought those smoke detectors,” Federer said.

Federer’s father died six months ago. His home was equipped with alarms, but he died of a heart attack while trying to put out an electrical fire in the basement of the house.

Anthony Luke, project coordinator of the Vanguards’ campaign, said he was stunned when Federer contacted him with the offer.

“It was perfect timing,” he said. “We’d just run out of smoke detectors and we were getting calls from people who’d put up live Christmas trees and knew they could cause fires, but didn’t have any detectors.”