The American Red Cross of Maine is teaming up with local partners to make local residents safer by installing free smoke alarms in their homes on Saturday, Aug. 26.

“Smoke alarms save lives. It’s that simple,” Boothbay Harbor Fire Chief Nick Upham said. “In fact, having working smoke alarms in your home reduces the chance of death by half. You improve your chances of survival even further by having an escape plan. We want to help residents with both those things – all free of charge.”

Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor residents can make an appointment for a home fire safety visit and free smoke alarm installation by calling the Red Cross at 874-1192, extension 113, or going to SoundTheAlarm.org/Maine. People interested in volunteering can also use that phone number and website.

“Every day, an average of seven people die in home fires in the United States. That’s more than in all other natural disasters combined,” said Red Cross Disaster Program Manager Larry French. “The Red Cross began its national Home Fire Campaign to prevent these tragedies. We know these efforts are working and that at least 260 lives have been saved because of them.”

The Red Cross Home Fire Campaign launched in 2014 aims to reduce home fire deaths and injuries by a quarter by 2020.

In Maine, the Red Cross and its partners have installed more than 8,000 smoke alarms and are on track to install an additional 3,600 over the next year. Nationally, 941,916 smoke alarms have been installed.

The event for Boothbay Harbor and Boothbay is made possible by a grant from the Doree Taylor Charitable Foundation, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee, as is the case with two other Lincoln County smoke alarm installation events. The one in Waldoboro last month made 64 residents safer and installed 121 free smoke alarms.  Another will be held in Wiscasset on Sept. 23.