In an effort to save people from dying in home fires, the Red Cross is providing free smoke alarms to residents in Hawai'i and across the country.
Volunteers with the Red Cross installed free alarms in 14 units at the Ka Hale Moi condos in Makiki Wednesday.
The organization plans to provide alarms for 30 units in the Marco Polo high-rise, where an inferno claimed 4 lives in 2017, as well as for homes in Anahola on Kaua'i.
"We respond every three to four days throughout the islands to a home fire and often it is a multi-home fire situation so it is a very, very critical issue," said Red Cross Pacific Islands Region CEO Diane Peters-Nguyen. The free installations are a part of the national Red Cross Sound the Alarm initiative launched in 2014. Since then, the Red Cross reported the program helped save more than 1,200 lives.