BOISE - The Red Cross needs 220 volunteers to help install 1,000 smoke detectors in 500 west Boise homes.
They plan on doing the installation on April 27 and April 28.
“They will go into the homes in teams of three,” said Nicole Sirak Irwin, the Regional CEO for the American Red Cross. “One person will install the alarm, one person will help them with the equipment and another with sit down with the resident and go over what risk that house hold might have, help them find an evacuation route and a rally point for their family.”
The Red Cross teamed up with the Boise Fire Department, the United Way and the city to identify high-risk homes. In this case, these homes are in six west Boise mobile home parks.
“Most people think you have five to six minutes or more to get out. You have two minutes. And in a mobile home it's less than that,” Sirak Irwin said. “So you really do need to practice these things as a family. You need to have a plan."
The goal is to save lives. Something the Red Cross said has already happened thanks to this program.
“We have over 238 saved lives throughout the country,” Sirak Irwin said. “We did have a life saved in Jerome, Idaho last year, and again, it was the last home installed on the last day of the campaign and that family did come and they did practice that night.“
The Red Cross provides all the supplies and training. If you’d like to volunteer you can do that here.