Sally Ladd and her family in Philipsburg, Mont., listen to Red Crossers Shellie Creveling, left, and Lori Fons, right, who arrived at their home to install free smoke alarms.
Sally Ladd and her family were all smiles recently when a Red Cross team arrived at her door offering to install free smoke alarms.
“Oh my gosh, it was great,” the mother of three said.
The Philipsburg, Mont., family had a few alarms already, but not necessarily installed in the right places, and a small cooking fire a couple of years ago was a reminder of just how quickly a fire can grow.
“As a mom I feel very moved that you would do something like this,” she said. “I’m grateful for having that feeling of greater safety for me and my family.”
More than 150 families across Montana and Idaho are safer from home fires thanks to communitywide smoke alarm installation events like the one in Philipsburg. As part of the national Sound the Alarm campaign, the Red Cross of Idaho and Montana rallied volunteers, local fire departments and community and tribal partners to come together to help keep their friends, families and neighbors safer from the nation’s most common disaster – home fires.
On average, Red Cross responds to a home fire every day in Idaho and Montana.
Besides Philipsburg, teams also installed alarms in Drummond, Hall and Busby in Montana and in Gooding and Parma in Idaho. Combined, these volunteers installed more than 370 free alarms.
“There were several homes that didn’t have any alarms, so they were very appreciative,” said Red Cross volunteer Dennis Becker, who helped out in Gooding, his first Sound the Alarm event. “Most of the homes we went to were outside of the city limits so it was quite a ways from where the fire department was, so having smoke alarms was something they really appreciated.”
Dennis Becker, green shirt, works with a Gooding firefighter to install a smoke alarm in an Idaho home.
The Red Cross partnered with the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Nation and the local fire department to install close to 50 free alarms in more than 20 Busby homes in southeastern Montana. Red Cross teams also visited schools in Philipsburg and Drummond in southwest Montana, teaching 200 students how to be prepared in case of an emergency like a fire. They also delivered emergency readiness information to local groups like the Rotary Club.
“When the fire alarm goes off get low and go,” 7-year-old Aida Ladd said, describing one of the important tips she learned from the Red Cross presenters.
Sally Ladd said her kids were super excited to share what they learned with the rest of the family.
“It’s wonderful to have a couple of schoolchildren who came home so jazzed, and they have all these phrases about what to do now if a fire comes,” Sally Ladd said. “I just want to say thank you.”
But the work doesn’t stop here. The Red Cross will continue to collaborate with community partners and its volunteers to install more alarms and share fire safety information as requests come in. They are also partnering with the Nez Perce in northern Idaho to install alarms there.
Volunteer Jennell Van Dyke delivers home fire safety information during a stop in Busby. Red Cross teamed up with the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Nation to install free alarms in 21 homes.
Nationwide, more than 1,200 lives have been saved by alarms installed during Red Cross home fire safety events. That includes a family in Jerome, Idaho, who escaped their home safely during a 2016 fire just a few months after Red Cross installed free alarms.
Becker said it feels good to know they’re making a difference.
“There’s so much bad stuff that’s always going on it’s nice to be able to help people out to do what we can and do good in today’s world,” he said.