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We propose the Safe Community Awareness and Alerting Network (SCALE), a cyber-physical system (CPS) leveraging the pervasive Internet of Things (IoT) to extend a smarter, safer home to all residents at a low incremental cost. SCALE uses novel networking technologies, commodity sensor devices, cloud services, and middleware abstractions to sense, analyze, and act on sensed events in a distributed manner. It monitors environmental factors (i.e. smoke, explosive gas) and automatically alerts residents via phone upon discovery of a possible emergency, enabling them to confirm the event and contact emergency dispatchers with minimal effort. This article describes the inception, design, development, and deployment of a prototype system to achieve these goals. We discuss lessons learned and future directions for general CPS/IoT platforms.