Red Cross putting fire detectors in homes across Central Coast

We have seen what can happen in the blink of an eye as fires ravaged neighborhoods from Santa Rosa down to the southern California. And as Governor Brown said, this is the new norm in the state. Despite that, according to the Red Cross, more people than not don’t have a working fire alarm in their home in Monterey County.

The Red Cross is putting fire detectors in homes throughout Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito Counties. The campaign is called “sound the alarm” and nationwide they have put in more than a million free smoke detectors.

Red Cross volunteers are going door to door through the Rancho Salinas mobile home park installing smoke detectors and making sure families have an evacuation plan in place in the case of a fire or earthquake.

According to the Red Cross, people typically have less than two minutes to escape form their mobile home when a fire breaks out. They’re also vulnerable to fires spreading from one home to the next because they’re so close. This time of year is more important than ever to have a working alarm.

“That’s critical with the Christmas trees, with the natural ones and artificial ones. We got to make our community as safe as possible with a device that will at least wake them up,” said Red Cross Disaster Program Mgr., Patsy Gasca.

Following a nine unit fire in Castroville last month, the Red Cross went back and targeted four blocks of homes around the area. 99% of the households did not have one working alarm.

There are 140 mobile homes in Rancho Salinas, so volunteers will be out there Wednesday and Saturday installing detectors. If you want to volunteer, then contact Patsy at (831) 419-3872