Smoke Alarms: A Critical Part of Your Home Fire Escape Plan
Smoke alarms are essential for protecting your home and loved ones during a fire. Since smoke spreads quickly, a working smoke alarm provides early warning, allowing you to escape faster.
By following these safety guidelines and ensuring your smoke alarms are working, you are making your home a safer place for everyone!
Key Facts
- Closed doors can help slow the spread of smoke, heat, and fire, giving you more time to escape.
- Smoke alarms should be installed:
- Inside every sleeping room
- Outside each separate sleeping area
- On every level of the home, including the basement
- Interconnected smoke alarms are recommended. When one alarm sounds, all alarms will sound.
- Most homes do not have this level of protection.
- About 3 out of 5 fire deaths occur in homes that either don’t have smoke alarms or have non-working alarms.
Safety Tips
- Install smoke alarms in every bedroom, outside each sleeping area, and on every level of the home, including the basement.
- Large homes may require extra alarms.
- Use interconnected smoke alarms. This way, when one alarm sounds, they all do, providing an earlier warning.
- Test your alarms monthly. Press the test button to ensure they are working.
- Change your clocks, change your batteries. Do this every March and November to ensure your smoke alarms are fully functional.
- New smoke alarms include advanced technology such as multi-sensing alarms that combine smoke and carbon monoxide detection.
- Proper placement: Smoke alarms should be mounted on the ceiling or high on a wall. Avoid placing them near the kitchen (at least 10 feet from the stove) to prevent false alarms.
- Special alarms for the hard of hearing or deaf: These alarms use strobe lights and bed shakers for alerting.
- Replace alarms after 10 years to ensure reliability.