BOISE, Idaho — Idaho Red Cross and its partners will install free smoke alarms in the Glenbrier Mobile Home Community in Boise on Wednesday during the organization’s 9/11 Memorial Sound the Alarm event.
Red Cross, the Boise Fire Department, volunteers and corporate partners, including AT&T and First Interstate Bank, will go door-to-door installing free alarms and educating families about fire safety. There are more than 100 homes in the Glenbrier community.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to team up with our community and corporate partners to make our friends and neighbors safer from home fires as we also remember the events of Sept. 11,” said Chris Volmer, the Red Cross disaster program manager for southwest Idaho. “We hope to turn this into an annual community service event.”
About 15 AT&T volunteers will be on hand to install alarms Wednesday as well as a volunteer team of 29 from First Interstate Bank.
AT&T recently gave the Red Cross of Greater Idaho and Montana $10,000 to help cover the cost of smoke alarms the Red Cross will install across both states.
“Public safety is a top priority for AT&T. Having a smoke alarm installed and working in a home dramatically increases safety for our families and our first-responders in the event of a fire,” said Tara Thue, president for AT&T Mountain West States. “We’re honored to support the American Red Cross in their efforts to increase accessibility to these basic, but incredibly important safety tools in communities across Idaho and Montana.”
Home fires continue to be the nation’s most common disaster. In the past year, the Red Cross has responded to 211 home fires across Idaho, providing emotional support, a safe place to stay and other assistance to those families affected.
“Giving back to the places we call home, whether through local sponsorships, donations, volunteer efforts or business development, is what makes us who we are — a full-service community bank offering a unique set of products and services, yes, but more importantly, a trusted community partner and neighbor,” First Interstate Commercial Group Manager Chris Batt said. “Organizations like the American Red Cross are so deserving of our time and support — we are honored to celebrate the power of community with them today.”
Since its Home Fire campaign launched in 2014, the American Red Cross has installed more than 1.8 million free alarms across the country, and the campaign has been credited with saving more than 620 lives.
“We can’t thank partners like First Interstate and AT&T enough for supporting this week’s event and making neighborhoods safer,” Red Cross of Greater Idaho and Montana CEO Nicole Sirak Irwin said. “Partnerships like these really do help save lives.”
In August, Idaho Red Cross installed 70 free alarms in 32 southeast Boise homes following a tragic home fire on South Leadville Avenue in July that killed a mother and her two children. At a two-day event in Nampa in April, Idaho Red Cross and its partners installed 550 alarms in 250 homes.
Every day seven people in the U.S. die in home fires and countless others are seriously injured. On average, families have just two minutes to escape their home during so working smoke alarms can make all the difference.
To request that the Red Cross install free smoke alarms in your home, click here or call 208-855-4938.
