10/02/2019

The Importance of Smoke Detectors

Next week is Fire Prevention Week, so I thought now would be a good time to share this story. Several months ago, I came home to our smoke detectors going off. The reason I didn’t call the fire department was that this had become a common occurrence. I smelled for smoke – nothing. I went through the house looking for signs of fire – none. I tried to get them to turn off – I couldn’t. I began disconnecting them one at a time, and finally, the noise stopped when I found the culprit….until it started again a few days later.

Matt disconnected the rest of them, replaced batteries, and started reinstalling when they went crazy. We determined that the system must be bad, so disconnected alarms sat all over the house for weeks, and I worried. I worried every time Gray had a friend sleepover. I worried when my parents came to visit. Why? Because I’ve written posts in the past related to this topic, and I knew the dangers. According to the National Fire Protection Association, three out of five fire deaths happen in homes with no smoke alarms or non-working smoke alarms; smoke alarms play such an important role when it comes to a home fire escape plan.

Smoke Detector Tips for your Home:

• Install smoke detectors on every level of your home, including placing them inside bedrooms and outside sleeping areas. Strategically place the smoke detector in your kitchen, at least 10’ from the stove, to reduce false alarms.
• If someone in your home is deaf or has difficulty hearing, consider installing special alarms with strobe lights and bed shakers.
• Test your alarms monthly.
• Replace the batteries twice a year. (A good time to do this is when the time changes.) At the same time, change the batteries in your carbon monoxide detector.
• Replace smoke alarms that are 10 years or older.

The same time our smoke detectors went crazy, our home security system quit. Assuming they were related, Matt called a home security monitoring company. They determined that both systems going out at the same time was a coincidence. The problem with the smoke detectors? They were almost 10 years old and needed to be replaced. The total cost was $168; $102 for the security company and $66 for new smoke detectors. Money well spent for peace of mind. Next week, we are going to talk about our family’s fire escape plan and share tips to help your family to come up with your own fire escape plan.

If you have questions or concerns, feel free to stop by one of our locations.  We are here to help.