ALLEN, OK - Each year seventy people in Oklahoma die in a house fire. The Red Cross said having a working smoke detector in your home can cut your risk of dying in a house fire in half and today they gave them out to residents of a town that's already experienced a tragic fire death.

The Red Cross went door to door through Allen today, checking to see if people have working smoke detectors.

"Every month make sure they are working, we have had too many fires lately," Pontotoc County Disaster Action Team Leader Paula Nelson told residents. "We need to keep everybody."

Nelson said, "A lot of them 'yea we have them but we don't have a battery, so we aren't going to mess with it' so we are going ahead and giving them out two batteries."

It's an effort that's personal for the people of Allen, who just two weeks ago, lost a well-known community member, Patricia Doyle.

"Not knowing what the cause of the fire was, the woman that we lost last week, her house was just consumed in fire," Nelson said. "I mean there was just no way of saving her."

The Red Cross also handed out fire safety brochures and monthly calendar reminders to check your smoke detector.

"It talks about how to prevent home fires, cooking, portable heaters, electricity, the different causes of the home fires and how they can prevent them," Nelson said.

information that Gina Alcaida appreciates, she's lived in Allen for four years and says she knows just how easily a fire can spark.

"Today I was in my daughters room trying to plug in a cord and the sparks went off," Alcaida said. "As of 5 minutes ago yes, I checked it and I thought there was a battery and there was no battery."

The Red Cross passed out 136 batteries to 55 different families Wednesday.

Efforts that residents said they appreciate because they could save lives.

Just this morning a home in Garvin County caught fire, the Red Cross said they plan to make their door to door reminders in that community later this week.