Co-authored by Channa Sweet and Jill Feldon LaNouette
October 20, 1957 newspaper clippings of the 4-alarm fire that took place on Fell St. Credit: The San Francisco Examiner // Archives
Carol awoke at 2 a.m. to an unimaginable scene unfolding in front of her. She was trapped in a room with smoke burning her nose and flames licking at the door. Unable to leave through her bedroom door, she climbed out her window and escaped from the third floor down an already burning fire escape. With singed hair and bare feet firmly planted on the cold ground, she stood across the street feeling like she was “watching her whole life burn away.”
1,357 smoke alarms installed throughout the Northern California Coastal Region in this spring
The American Red Cross responds to home fires more than any other disaster nationwide, so home fire prevention is something we take seriously. For that reason, Red Cross members, along with local fire departments and community partners, to install 1,357 free smoke alarms in 502 homes, making 1,472 residents safer from homes fires during our 2025 Sound the Alarm campaign. From April 26 – May 23, communities in Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano, Merced, San Benito, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties were made safer thanks to free smoke alarms and home fire prevention education.
Sound the Alarm events are a critical part of the national Red Cross Home Fire Campaign which aims to reduce the number of deaths from home fires. The Home Fire Campaign has helped save 2,320 lives since its launch in October 2014 due to working smoke alarms in homes. Nationwide, volunteers and local fire departments visit neighborhoods to install free smoke alarms and share home fire prevention information with residents, including home fire escape plans. Here in the Northern California Coastal Region, volunteers and partners have installed more than 55,300 free smoke alarms and made more than 20,000 households safer since 2014, saving 32 lives reported in the Greater Bay Area.
On a recent chilly Saturday morning, high school senior Brayden Rapa joined dozens of other volunteers at the Vallejo Mobile Estates. Their goal was to make this community safer by installing free smoke alarms, made possible courtesy of the American Red Cross.
Brayden, a student at Northgate High School in Walnut Creek, volunteered for the event as part of his senior class project. He says most seniors choose a project based on a career path they are passionate about. He chose fire prevention because he plans to become a firefighter.
Red Cross Free Smoke Alarms Alert Marin County Family During House Fire
“I said, ‘A fire! A fire! Let’s get out. Everybody get out!’”
The Monthier family home the night of Sept. 3, 2023.
Marie Monthier will never forget what happened in the early morning hours of September 3, 2023. She and her extended family of two older adults, two adult children and two small grandchildren were asleep in their mobile home in Marin County, California. Marie got up to use the restroom and heard smoke alarms blaring. That’s when she saw a fire behind the kitchen stove and alerted her family to evacuate.
Marie’s son, David Mardy, had just moved into his own apartment in Marin County. When his mother called him after everyone got out of the house safely, David rushed over and found the home in ruins and his family in shock.
“The whole family was on the street, standing, looking at the house burning down. My mom said, ‘Look at my house!’ Tears started coming out of my eyes,” David said.
“I truly feel honored to share my story to maybe help just one person!”
Kathie Reinholds of Brentwood is a big believer in “paying it forward.” More than 50 years ago, as a teenager in Hayward, she won an award for her volunteer work with the American Red Cross. Decades later, the Red Cross was able to pay Kathie back for her selfless work – not once, but twice!
Kathie’s home in Paradise, Calif., before it was destroyed by the Camp Fire in 2018.
On November 8, 2018, Kathie was sound asleep in her home in Paradise, California. She lived alone, having lost her husband Gary four years earlier. What happened to her that morning is what she calls “a story and a half.”
“Something woke me up and I thought it was the middle of the night,” says Kathie. “I looked at my phone and it was 8 a.m. Normally I would roll over, but something pushed me up. I like to think it was my husband, my guardian angel.”
Kathie ran outside and found a strange scene.
The eerie glow from the Camp Fire on the morning of November 8, 2018.
“I was up on a hill and overlooked everything. It was the weirdest red sky. I thought it was a cool sunrise.”
What she saw was the smoke and flames from the Camp Fire, which raced through Paradise that morning, killing 85 people and destroying much of the town.
“We had no system in place to learn that there was a fire. All the emergency towers burned down; it just spread so fast.”
Kathie credits a neighbor for saving her life.
“She called me and said, ‘Get out now, kiddo!’”
Kathie managed to throw a few things into her car but could not find her cat and had to leave her behind. She drove through the burning town, sitting in gridlock, then on to Chico, Sacramento, and finally Lodi, where she met up with her grown children.
The burnt remains of Kathie’s Paradise home.
Kathie was able to return to Paradise the following month but found her home had burned to the ground and her cat had disappeared.
“It was horrible,” she says, choking up. “That same month I almost died. I had a heart attack. I think I’m on maybe my fourth life,” Kathie says, laughing through her tears. “I don’t know how many ‘Get Out of Jail’ cards I get but I’ve used quite a few!”
Kathie says she received financial help from FEMA and from the Red Cross. “They also had a table for travel-sized personal needs that became a staple in part of my many trips to Paradise and recreating my life.”
Kathie finally was able to create that new life for herself at a mobile home park in Brentwood in Contra Costa County. “I couch surfed for several months and moved five times before I landed the house in Brentwood. This experience either makes you humble and grateful or angry. I choose humble!”
Red Cross volunteers installing free smoke alarms in Kathie’s Brentwood community.
Five years after that devastating wildfire, Kathie once again connected with the American Red Cross. Volunteers with the Red Cross Sound the Alarm program came to her mobile home park this April to install free smoke alarms for residents.
Kathie says, “I was so thrilled. My ceilings are really high. I’m thinking, ‘how I am I going to do this?’”
The volunteer crews put in several new smoke alarms in her home. When they learned she was hard of hearing, they arranged for another crew to return and install a “bed shaker” alarm. This specialized device includes a vibrating pad that can be placed under a pillow or mattress. The bed shaker connects to other alarms in a home and features a strobe light that can rouse people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Now, Kathie tells us she feels much safer in her new home. “Oh yes, absolutely! I know at any time, anything can happen, when you least expect it, I know it. I will be forever grateful to the Red Cross.”
Kathie still believes in the Red Cross values she learned in high school and the lessons from the Camp Fire. “I have a ‘pay it forward closet.’ That closet contains a rotating supply of pots, pans, linens and other items for people in need. “Everyone should have one!”
To learn more about preparing for a home or wildfire, visit redcross.org/prepare.
Red Cross volunteer John Gee has installed more than 2,000 free smoke alarms in homes across the region since the launch of the Sound the Alarm campaign in 2014. Photo by Ashish “Ash” Mantri/American Red Cross
Home fires claim seven lives every day in the U.S. and remain one of the most frequent disasters across the region — but having working smoke alarms can cut the risk of death by half. That’s why, over five weekends in April, volunteers with the American Red Cross Northern California Coastal Region, along with local fire departments and community partners, installed 1,294 free smoke alarms and made 462 homes safer as part of the annual Sound the Alarm campaign.
“A working smoke alarm can be the difference between survival and tragedy when a home fire strikes,” said Ana Romero, Red Cross Regional Preparedness Manager. “That’s why the Red Cross is teaming up with community partners to help ensure local residents, especially those most vulnerable, have these lifesaving devices.” Sound the Alarm events are part of the Red Cross Home Fire Campaign which has helped save at least 1,664 lives nationwide since launching in October 2014. Working with local fire departments and community partners, Red Cross volunteers visit high-risk neighborhoods, install free smoke alarms and provide residents with information on common causes of home fires, how to prevent them, what to do if a fire starts and how to create an escape plan.
This work is made possible thanks to generous financial donations from our regional Sound the Alarm campaign partners: Pacific Gas and Electric Company; Arista Networks; CSAA Insurance Group, State Farm; and Gloria and Mike Ipson.
Red Cross volunteers and partners installed 396 free smoke alarms and made 190 homes safer in April across the Bay Area Chapter. More than 500 residents of San Francisco, San Bruno, Brentwood and Hayward are now better prepared to face emergencies after receiving education about home fire prevention.
“Every day, our department sees first-hand the damage and destruction that home fires can have on a community,” said Willie McDonald, Fire Chief for the Alameda County Fire Department. “This is why campaigns, like Sound the Alarm, are so important. A little home fire prevention can go a long way toward keeping families and the community safe, and a smoke alarm is one of the most effective tools we have to do that. We are proud to partner with the Red Cross for this very important event.”
Photo by Nanette Shamieh American Red Cross
Heart of the Valley Chapter
71 homes were made safer in the Heart of the Valley Chapter after two Sound the Alarm events in Stockton and Los Banos.
Red Cross volunteers and community partners installed 169 free smoke alarms and helped 210 residents to create an escape plan and be better prepared in case of a home fire
North Bay Chapter
Photo by Nanette Shamieh American Red Cross
Community partners and Red Crossers installed 354 free smoke alarms and made 116 homes safer in the North Bay Chapter. Over the three events in Sonoma, San Rafael and Vacaville, the teams shared home fire prevention educational information with more than 230 residents to make the community safer.
Captain Drew Kostal and his K-9 “Kepi” from the Vacaville Fire Department attended the installation event on Saturday, April 29. He spoke with the team about the importance of working smoke alarms.
Silicon Valley Chapter
Photo by Atul Trviedi American Red Cross
Red Crossers and community partners gathered at Millpond Mobile Home Park on Saturday, April 29 to install 205 free smoke alarms in 85 homes to make more than 140 residents safer.
Red Cross Board and Tiffany Circle Members participated in Sound the Alarm events across the region to help make their community safer.
Sound the Alarm – Signature Event in Hayward (CA) – April 29, 2023 Photo by Martin Gagliano – American Red Cross
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