By Joe Gutierrez, American Red Cross volunteer

Typically, the American Red Cross is known for helping those affected by disasters such as fires, floods and other natural disasters.

In addition to disaster response efforts, the Red Cross also prepares communities through its nationwide Home Fire Campaign. This campaign is a proactive preparedness effort to reduce deaths and injuries from the nation's most frequent disaster: home fires. Through free smoke alarm installations, fire safety education and home fire escape planning, the campaign helps families stay safer. Seven people die from home fires every day in the United States, but working smoke alarms can cut the risk of dying in a home fire by about half. Launched in 2014, the campaign has saved more than 2,500 lives across the country, including two lives in San Bernardino County.

One major part of the campaign is the Sound the Alarm program, a preplanned community event where teams of volunteers gather at specific locations such as neighborhoods, mobile home parks and other residences to install free smoke alarms, create escape plans and share home fire safety information with residents. More than 3.2 million smoke alarms have been installed across the country since the program started.

The Red Cross also offers the Hot Shots program which offers appointment-based smoke alarm installations.

The value and necessity of the Hot Shots program was never more evident than in August 2025 in the city of Montclair in San Bernardino County.

Responding to a Home Fire in Montclair

Red Cross Disaster Action Team volunteers Ralph Taylor and Kent Behrends, from the San Bernardino County chapter, responded to help residents impacted by a fire at a mobile home park in Montclair.

Ralph, who joined the Red Cross in November 2014, serves as volunteer supervisor. He said that he and Kent, who served as the second responder, felt that they had been to the park before.

The two looked around then realized they had been part of a Sound the Alarm event at the mobile home park years earlier, Ralph said.

The two responders didn’t dwell on that, instead they shifted their focus on helping the two residents, a 90-year-old man and his middle-aged daughter. The fire destroyed their mobile home, but both escaped unharmed.

“One of the first things one of them said to us was, ‘If it hadn't been for the smoke alarms, we would not have woken up,’ said Ralph. “It was definitely, in their minds, the smoke alarms that saved their lives.”

Ralph asked the individuals if it was the Red Cross that had installed the smoke alarms and provided the smoke alarm education and a home fire escape plan.

“They remembered that the Red Cross installed it,” Ralph said.

From there, the two Disaster Action Team responders wrapped up their visit by providing home fire recovery assistance that included comfort kits and blankets to the man and his daughter. Afterward, Ralph worked to verify if the free smoke alarms installed at the now destroyed mobile home had been installed by Red Cross volunteers. Records confirmed that a Sound the Alarm event was held at the park in April 2023. Because the residents were not home at the time, volunteers left behind home fire safety materials and information about how to request a follow-up installation through the Red Cross Hot Shots program.

Hot Shot Volunteers Bill and Janice Spear

After reviewing smoke alarm installation documentation, it was confirmed that Red Cross Hot Shots volunteers Bill and Janice Spear had installed a smoke alarm at the residence in 2024. Bill joined the Red Cross in 2017 and Janice joined in 2019. The couple are primarily volunteers in logistics. Among the couple’s main responsibilities there is maintaining the Sound the Alarm trailer, which they fully stock, maintain and drive to Sound the Alarm events so that volunteers have plenty of supplies such as foldable wagons, ladders and buckets with the necessary materials and paperwork.

Working the trailer keeps them busy throughout the event so they don’t normally participate in the installations.

“There's so much going on at the trailer itself. For example, we have these buckets and we pass the buckets out to each team, and there's usually anywhere between 10 and 18 3-person teams,” Bill said. “These events are actually really big, and we're responsible for all of the things that are inside the bucket.”

Bill and Janice supported the April 2023 Montclair Sound the Alarm event and returned to the neighborhood on a Hot Shots team after residents requested a follow up appointment since they weren’t home the day of the event.

The Lifesaving Result

Months later, when the mobile home caught fire, the impact of that visit became evident.

Responder Ralph Taylor, in recounting the Disaster Action Team intake to help the two residents, said the woman credited the education they received from Janice and Bill in helping to save their lives because they knew what to do to get out of the house.

Ralph said Bill and Janice were the real heroes of the fire, and they received recognition for the good work they had done.

Bill said it was a little overwhelming to think that what he and Janice did helped somebody survive a disaster.

“I go in and I install, and she educates the people based on the forms that she has, and she goes over a lot of the fire prevention and safety information,” Bill said. “But it's very, very satisfying knowing that what we did helped somebody, and it's a good feeling.”

Janice said it was inspiring.

“It makes me realize that the amount of time I spent that day, because we're up early, we got to go to the warehouse, we load things up, we got to go out to the homes. It makes it very motivating to do that job, to know that you help somebody,” Janice said. “It’s very satisfying. All that work that you spend in a day really pays off.”

Learn more about volunteering at redcross.org/VolunteerToday.

To learn more about the Home Fire Campaign visit SoundTheAlarm.org/SoCal.