American Red Cross looks to save lives on Central Coast with national campaign

A national campaign to reduce house fire deaths has come to the Central Coast.

Saturday in Marina, firefighters and American Red Cross volunteers teamed up to hand out smoke detectors and spread fire safety tips at a mobile home park.

“The Red Cross campaign has saved seven lives across the country since we started this program four months ago,” said Cynthia Shaw of the American Red Cross. “Our goal is to reduce the deaths by home fires by 25 percent in five years.”

“I was pretty happy because mine didn’t work,” said Azucena Rafael, referring to her brand-new smoke detector.

Seven times a day, someone in this country dies in a home fire, according to the Red Cross.

Firefighters targeted the mobile home park because it is more susceptible to fires.

The Red Cross plans to canvass more neighborhoods throughout Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties in the months to come.