PHOENIX — A handful of American Red Cross volunteers walked around a mobile home park on Saturday morning, going door to door in hopes of preventing a tragedy.
Ken Edelblute, a volunteer with the American Red Cross, said they installed about 30 smoke alarms following a fire that ripped through three mobile homes near 31st Avenue and Buckeye. No one was injured in the fire.
Edelblute said they came out the afternoon of the fire to help the 10 people who were displaced and found out from neighbors that some of the homes did not have smoke detectors.
“We came out the next morning, we canvassed the park, we put some flyers out. We actually did 12 installs last Saturday before we ran out of supplies and the same homeowner put together a list of 16 more people that we could do more today,” Edelblute said.
“It’s awesome they did it for free. That means a lot,” said Alex Valenzuela, who had two new smoke detectors installed in his home last week. “It’s better to have more because you never know.”
Volunteers helped install new smoke alarms that could last 10 years, they taught homeowners how to check them, checked on existing smoke alarms and educated homeowners on ways they can escape their home in case of a fire.
“Mobile homes burn very quickly, very rapidly. You don’t have much time to get out. We want those smoke detectors there, give people an early warning, give them the ability to get out so we don’t lose lives.
“We don’t want to ever potentially lose a life because somebody didn’t have the right preventative measures installed in their home,” said Phoenix Vice Mayor Yassamin Ansari, who stopped by Saturday morning to see how the American Red Cross was helping people in her district.
