Last week, the Red Cross of Utah noted in a press release that last Tuesday’s apartment fire was the 100th residence fire statewide that the group’s Disaster Action Team, or DAT, has responded to this year.

Michael Smauldon, executive director of the American Red Cross Northern Utah Chapter, told the Standard-Examiner on Monday this is a very unusual number to meet in the latter half of summer.

“Most of our home fire responses happen in the colder months,” he said. “We’ll get some in January, February, March. Things tend to slow down through the spring, summer; and in fall, early winter, it picks up again. This is really due to people trying to find ways to heat their home and using unorthodox ways of heating their homes. … Hitting 100 right here at the end of summer is unusual.”

He said he sees a lot of grilling and DIY home improvement activities at homes contributing to the higher number this year, adding that around 35 of the 100 responses have been in and around Ogden.

The Red Cross press release said, at this rate, the state’s DAT could respond to upwards of 170 fires by the end of this year if the usual trend holds. So far, the Red Cross reports having assisted 450 people across the state following fires that displaced them from their residences.

Smauldon said that he would like to see Utahans pay a bit more attention to fire safety and prevention.

“We need to have people pay attention a little better to the things that they’re doing around their household,” he said. “We really push home fire education and prevention information. My team has been really good about going out and (distributing) free smoke alarms throughout the community, but we need to get people to do more of the basics to prevent house fires.”

He added that this includes taking care in the kitchen — where most fires start — including keeping food that is cooking attended and knowing how to deal with grease fires appropriately. Additionally, homeowners are advised to take care grilling and to keep grills away from structures.

When the need does arise and the DAT is summoned to help those displaced by a fire impacting their residence, Smauldon said assistance starts almost immediately.

“When the Red Cross responds to a home fire, first and foremost, our priority is to those homeowners and their family members and their wellbeing,”  he said. “We show up and first try comforting care. It’s a high-stress situation to see your home, in essence, being destroyed. … Our workers really come in and try to do comforting care to try to console that family and help them try to process what’s happening in front of them.”

He said the next steps include financial aid for the displaced.

“We work with them to open up a case so that we can work to do immediate assistance,” he said. “Our team of volunteers is trained to be able to issue funds immediately, right there at the response, to be able to get that family into a hotel or to get clothes, to get food, to get some items; they work with them to get them that financial assistance immediately.”

From there, Smauldon said the case workers work on getting the displaced long-term care and back into a permanent housing situation.

For more information, visit https://www.redcross.org/volunteer/disaster-action-team.html. Red Cross also installs free smoke detectors. For more information, visit https://www.redcross.org/local/utah/about-us/our-work/home-fire-campaign.html.