GET SOME DAMN SMOKE DETECTORS!

[marty_scher]

It's truely amazing how other things in life can be more important than these $8 life savers.<br /><br />My kindergarten son lost a class mate and her brother and sister, in an early morning house fire. It appears that the only smoke detector (in the basement) had the battery missing. The father was critically burned also.<br /><br />Family and friends are devastated, over a possibly preventable tragedy.<br /><br />There is really no excuse for not having working smoke detectors on each floor of your home.<br /><br />The price for not having them is definetely not worth paying.<br /><br />Marty

 

[ob]

Re: GET SOME DAMN SMOKE DETECTORS!

Good advice.If you are in bed and smell or see smoke ,roll out onto the floor and crawl,don't stand up.Teach your family this practice.We use to get safety meeting visitors from the fire dept. on occassion and they said that a large number of the fire victims that they recover from burned houses are found just a few feet from where they were sleeping.They stood up and took their last breath of superheated air long before they were charred.<br />Double key cylinder dead bolt door locks are a death trap in the advent of fire.

 

[norman158]

Re: GET SOME DAMN SMOKE DETECTORS!

change the battries in those smoke detectors twice a year. daylight savings time is a good time to do that. change the clocks and the battries at the same time

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: GET SOME DAMN SMOKE DETECTORS!

Sad story Marty, for sure.<br /><br />It's a shame when people don't have them or have them disabled and it results in this kind of ending.<br /><br />Here at home, if you can not afford one, the fire department will give them to you and even install them.<br /><br />My father-in-law which lives right out my back door, is 73 and has had 4 or 5 strokes, but still insists on living by himself, so I had the smoke detectors wired up as to go off in my house as well as his.<br /><br />He has the electric with battery back-up model and so I just had the circuit wired up to a horn that is in my bedroom.

 

[Scoop]

Re: GET SOME DAMN SMOKE DETECTORS!

Another tragedy. Around here, Rayovac gives out free 9 volts for smoke detectors.<br /><br />There are two types of smoke detectors. Photoelectric and ionization. The photoelectric works well for smokey fires, while the ionization works well for fires with very little smoke. Both types of fires can kill in minutes. Get a mixture of both types just to be sure. There are a few out there that combine both photo with ionization. These are good buys. While your at it, buy a carbon monoxide detector.<br /><br />This whole post reminds me I took the batteries out of one of my smoke detectors a few nights ago at 3:00AM. I need to get new batteries installed. I do have a backup detector in the area, but don't like to take a chance.

 

[JB]

Re: GET SOME DAMN SMOKE DETECTORS!

Keep in mind that research has shown that smoke detectors rarely wake children. It is you that will hear them, or even more likely, their Mom.<br /><br />Moms have special hearing for child noises or threat noises.<br /><br />Locate them where she, or you, will hear them.

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: GET SOME DAMN SMOKE DETECTORS!

I installed the hardwire/battery system in my house. They are daisy chained together so that if one goes off they all go off. Plus I installed commercial style emergency lighting in the hallway, basement stairs, and garage. That way all the exits will be lighted. (Comes in handy when there is a power failure to).....SS

 

[Fishbusters]

Re: GET SOME DAMN SMOKE DETECTORS!

I have 2 types and in more than one room as well as heat detectors. These things are a wound spring that makes a bell ring when the meltable tab melts. It has to get hot enough for it to melt about 130 degrees if I got it straight. The one in the attic goes off at 170 because it is hotter in the attic. Many fires will cause enough heat to make them go off before the smoke gets to the smoke detecor. All of this sounds overboard but not only do I have the wife and kids but my invalid father (and mom who is not in the best of health)to get out of the house so I want as much and as early a warning as I can get. BTW I also keep a fire bat hung by the window. This allows me to break out the window and then carry it with me so I can get in the kids room from the outside. I also recomend investing in escape ladders if you have an upstairs bedroom or apartment because you never know when the fire may block the stairs.