Every day, seven people in this country die in home fires, many of them in homes without working smoke alarms. To keep local households safer, Montana Red Cross recently partnered with a Great Falls service organization to make sure families have the tools they need to get out safely during a fire.

Five volunteers from the Sunrise Lions Club team worked hand-in-hand with Red Crossers to install free smoke alarms and educate dozens of residents about
fire safety.

“It was very successful,” said Shellie Creveling, the Red Cross disaster program manager for Northwest Montana who spearheaded the group effort.

“Together, we went into 17 homes, installed 45 alarms and educated 41 people. … And we did it in less than three hours. For our Red Cross group of five people working alone, this would have taken double the time. We were able to educate more people and make more homes safer with (the Lions’) help.”

This relationship began about a year ago when Shellie spoke to the Lions at one of their monthly meetings, outlining the ways Red Cross helps local communities and encouraging them to get involved.

“Our goal is to bring in more grassroots partners together and involve more people,” she said. “To have an organization buy into making their community safer and more resilient is fantastic.”

Though he didn’t initially know what to expect from the smoke alarm event, Lions Club member Jack Beckman said it felt great knowing they were helping keep Great Falls families safer.

“We saw professional people that day who have never thought about needing smoke detectors,” the 76-year-old retiree and self-taught handyman said.

Jack said the volunteers met one woman who had attachments for smoke alarms installed on her walls, but she had never permanently affixed the alarms themselves because the batteries would misfire causing a constant beeping.

“I told her, ‘You are a lot better off dealing with a bit of beeping than a fire,’” Beckman explained as the team installed new alarms with 10-year lithium batteries.

Other Sunrise Lions Club volunteers included Tom Gruss, Mitch Martin, Mike Schmit, Jack Beckman and Neil Swift. Red Cross volunteers included Keith Creveling and Angela James. Staff members on hand were Shellie Creveling and Rick Baker.

Shellie said this new partnership not only helped make Great Falls homes safer but also has the potential to take hold across the Big Sky state.

“Now they have gained the experience for future projects and can extend their connections to other Montana Lions clubs,” Shellie said. “We built a partnership. And, that local partnership could spread across Montana.”

NEED SMOKE ALARMS?

Working smoke alarms cut the risk of death in a home fire by 50 percent. If you would like free smoke alarms installed in your home, please visit soundthealarm.org/montana to schedule an
appointment.