It’s free, and could save your life

Do you have a smoke alarm in your home? Do you have one on every level of your house? Does the battery work? Do you test the battery every 30 days?

Smoke alarms can save your life, but only if they have working batteries.

There are two newly minted smoke alarm proponents in Houston today.

Eight months pregnant, Katheryn Jones, 17, and boyfriend Larry Baker, 19, weren’t feeling well and were resting in the bedroom of their trailer at 12018 N. Round Table Dr. on Thanksgiving Day when they smelled smoke and heard their new smoke alarms sound.

Jones’ brother Shawn Skiles, who works for the Houston Fire Department, was at their trailer Wednesday installing free smoke alarms the Houston Fire Department — and most other Mat-Su fire departments — have on hand thanks to a grant.

Houston Fire Chief Tom Hood said without the smoke alarm, the incident could have had a fatal ending.

“It’s nice when it goes this way,” he said. “It could have been a lot worse.”

Firefighters referred the two to the Red Cross and then invited them back to the firehouse to partake in the Thanksgiving feast they’d been enjoying when the call for help came in.

So many things about this story are poignant — a young couple living in a trailer with no running water, only a wood stove for heat, out of work and with a baby on the way.

Still, their struggle aside, the two say their message is one of gratitude for the fire department and the Red Cross.

“There aren’t enough thank yous in the world,” Jones said.

The Red Cross gave the couple a voucher to help them cover the costs of food, clothing and other necessities and put them up at the Grand View Inn for three nights.

We are grateful that nonprofit organizations like Red Cross exist to help people — such as these two young souls — stay in their homes, no matter how humble, rather than have an emergency push them to join the tally of the Mat-Su Valley’s homeless residents.

We are thankful for grant funding that has made hundreds of smoke alarms available free through the Central Mat-Su, Willow, West Lakes, Palmer and Houston fire departments. To connect with a free smoke alarm — and have it installed for free — contact the non-emergency number for your local fire department.

Those numbers are: Houston 892-6457, Central Mat-Su 373-8830, Willow 495-6728, West Lakes, 376-9790, Palmer 745-3271.

Each year, several of our neighbors die in house fires. We encourage all of our neighbors to take advantage of the fire departments’ offer of free alarms and free install.

Here’s to more of these happy endings in the Mat-Su Valley.