Bill Ritter on 'Operation 7: Save a Life'

Wednesday, January 6, 2016
NEW YORK (WABC) -- One death from a fire is one too many. Few things are more important than slashing the number of people who die from fire. And the key to saving your life - and the lives of people you love - is to be prepared.

That mantra is the key to our annual Operation 7 Save-a-Life campaign, which kicks off this month. My honor to host this campaign since its inception at WABC-TV in 1999. In fact, it's one of the most important things I do for Eyewitness News. And it's especially significant this year as the FDNY celebrates its 150th anniversary.

We have saved lives, no question. Through our partners - Kidde, the FDNY and other fire departments throughout the Tri-State, Home Depot, Toyota and the Hearst Burn Unit at New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center - we have given out hundreds of thousands of Kidde smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, free, to people who otherwise can't afford them.
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And that has saved lives. And what greater public service is there than that?

We'll do it again this month - and it includes a half-hour special, on Saturday, Jan. 24, at 7:30 p.m. -- a program that offers some very important information -- about how to survive an emergency and how to be prepared for one.

I hope you can watch - and watch with people you love. Because if you can learn just one thing that can save a life, then all that we do in this campaign is worth it. Because one death from fire, is one too many.




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