FIRE PREVENTION - Smoke Alarms

Changing the battery is only part of the concern!

Smoke alarms save lives, but only if they work!!  Change your batteries and test your smoke alarms TODAY!

As a minimum, we recommend changing your batteries at least twice a year at the begining and end of daylight savings time.

Installing/testing smoke alarms

• Install smoke alarms Listed (examined and tested to appropriate product safety standards) by a qualified testing laboratory on every level of your home, including the basement (but not unfinished attics). Make sure there is an alarm in or near every sleeping area.
• Mount the smoke alarms high on ceilings or walls – remember, smoke rises. eiling-mounted alarms should be installed at least four inches away from the nearest wall; wall-mounted alarms should be installed four to 12 inches away from the ceiling.
• Don't install smoke alarms near windows, outside doors, or ducts where drafts might interfere with their operation.
• Don't paint your smoke alarms; paint or other decorations could keep them from working when you most need it.

Keeping your smoke alarms working properly:

Test your smoke alarms at least once a month by using the alarms' "test button." Never use an open-flame device to test the alarm as you could burn yourself or start a fire. If the smoke alarm manufacturer's instructions permit the use of an aerosol smoke product for testing the smoke alarm, only use one that has been Listed by a third-party product testing agency, and utilize it in accordance with the product instructions.

• Replace the batteries in your smoke alarms twice a year, or as soon as the alarm "chirps," warning that the battery is low.
• Regularly vacuuming or dusting your smoke alarm following manufacturer's instructions can help keep it working properly.
• Replace your smoke alarms once every 10 years.
• Never "borrow" a battery from a smoke alarm.
• Make sure that everyone in your home can hear and recognize the sound of the alarm and knows how to react immediately.

Replace your smoke alarms every 10 years.

While batteries are the primary reason for non-functioning smoke detectors, smoke detectors should be replaced at least every ten years. The following is from Operation Life Safety Newsletter, May/June 2002:

"YEAH, That Smoke Alarm has been There Since 1989, So What?"

Well, for starters it could fail; and if it does, someone could die. While you've been going about your daily life, your smoke alarm has been going through over 3.5 million monitoring cycles. After about 10 years, that smoke alarm is near the end of its service life and should be replaced. Its components may become less reliable, which means the potential of failing to detect a fire increases.

It is estimated that 1 in 3, or over 75 million smoke alarms in America are outdated.  This is the first critical issue regarding smoke alarms. If your smoke alarm is near or over 10 years old, GO GET A NEW ONE...it could save your life.

There have been great new innovations in both battery and electrical powered alarms, like alarms with two individual sensors, one photoelectric and one ionization to provided added protection against flaming and smoldering fires.

You can also get 10-year lithium battery smoke alarms, alarms with lights and more.

There are even "super" smoke alarms with a silence feature which will quiet the alarm following accidental cooking or other activations. And rather than standing on a chair to hit the silence button, you can quiet these remotely using any TV, VCR or other infrared remote device.

The second critical issue is, while smoke alarms are present in 94% of American homes, 20% do not work because of worn or missing batteries.

"A residential fire impacts the life of an America family every 85 seconds," says Richard "Smokey" Dyer, former president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.  "By encouraging families to take a proactive approach to fire safety and change smoke alarms and batteries- they are cutting in half their risk of dying in a home fire."

Operation Life Safety is a newsletter by put out by the Residential Fire Safety Institute, a public interest group created in 1982 to promote fire safe homes.

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