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Install smoke alarms correctly

  • Install smoke alarms on every level of your home, including the basement, making sure that there is an alarm outside each separate sleeping area.

  • New homes are required to have a smoke alarm in every sleeping room and all smoke alarms must be interconnected.
  • If you sleep with bedroom doors closed, have a qualified electrician install interconnected smoke alarms in each room so that when one alarm sounds,they all sound.
  • Mount smoke alarms high on walls or ceilings (remember, smoke rises).
  • Don’t install smoke alarms near windows, doors, or ducts where drafts might interfere with their operation.
  • Never paint smoke alarms. Paint, stickers, or other decorations could keep the alarms from working.

 

Check your smoke alarms regularly

  • Test your smoke alarms once a month, following the manufacturer’s instructions.
  • Replace the batteries in your smoke alarm once a year, or as soon as the alarm “chirps” warning that the battery is low. Hint: schedule battery replacements for the same day you change your clocks from daylight savings to standard time in the fall.
  • Never “borrow” a battery from a smoke alarm.
  • Don’t disable smoke alarms even temporarily. If your smoke alarm is sounding “nuisance alarms,” try relocating it farther from kitchens or bathrooms, where cooking fumes and steam can cause the alarm to sound, or replace the alarm with one that has a pause, silencer or hush button.
  • Regularly vacuuming or dusting your smoke alarms, following the manufacturer’s instructions, can keep them working properly.
  • Smoke alarms don’t last forever. Replace yours once every 10 years.
  • If you can’t remember how old the alarm is, then it’s probably time for a new one.
  • Consider installing smoke alarms with “long-life” (10-year) batteries.

 

Know how to respond when the alarm sounds

  • Fire can spread rapidly through your home, leaving you as little as two minutes to escape safely once the alarm sounds.Your ability to get out depends on advance warning from smoke alarms, and advance planning a home fire escape plan that everyone in yourfamily is familiar with and has practiced.
  • Make sure that everyone in your home can recognize the sound of the alarm, and knows exactly what to do when it sounds. Some studies have shown that some children may not awaken to the sound of the smoke alarm. Know what your child will do before a fire occurs.
  • Pull together everyone in your household and make a plan. Walk through your home and inspect all possible exits and escape routes. Draw a floor plan of the home, marking two waysout of each room, including windows and doors. Also, mark the location of each smoke alarm.
  • Choose an outside meeting place (i.e. neighbor's house, a light post, mailbox, or stop sign) a safe distance in front of your home where everyone can meet after they've escaped. Make sure to mark the location of the meeting place on your escape plan.
  • Practice the escape plan at least twice a year.
  • If there are infants, older adults or family members with mobility limitations make sure that someone is assigned to
    assist them in the fire drill and in the event of an emergency. Assign a backup person too, in case the designee is not home during the emergency.
  • Be fully prepared for a real fire: when a smoke alarm sounds, get out immediately.

 


Other helpfull Tips

  • Clean up your room! Make sure that doors, stairways and other exits out of your home are clear of toys, furniture, and other clutter.
  • Memorize the emergency phone number of the fire department.  Remind everyone that they should get out first, then call for help from outside, or at a neighbor's home.
  • Always choose the escape route that is safest.  Practice crawling low under smoke in case you must go through it to get out. Smoke is nasty stuff — even worse than fire itself. To keep from breathing it in, crawl low under the smoke on your hands and knees. Your head will be in a "safety zone" of clean air about knee high.
  • Close the door behind you. Closing the doors as you leave can slow the spread of fire and smoke. Keep fires from starting.
  • If food is cooking on the stovetop, make sure that a grown-up is always in the kitchen.
  • Keep the stove clear of anything that could catch on fire: paper, towels, curtains, or potholders.
  • Make the area around the stove a "kid-free zone." No kids or pets within three feet of the stove when grown-ups are cooking!
  • Grown-ups should always turn off portable space heaters when they leave the room or go to sleep.  Keep heaters three feet from anything that can burn like walls, bedding, and clothes.
  • Make sure that grown-ups blow out any candles when they leave the room. Also, be sure that candleholders are big and deep enough to catch dripping wax, and can keep the candles from tipping over. Most important: never, ever have candles in kids' bedrooms. Leave candles to grown-ups.
  • If anyone in your home smokes, make sure that they put water on any butts or ashes before throwing them away.  Be sure they use large, heavy, non-tip ashtrays.
  • Keep matches and lighters out of sight and reach of kids — the best place for them is in a locked cabinet.
  • Remind grown-ups to make sure that electrical cords are in good condition, with no cracked or frayed areas.
  • Any fuel or liquid that can catch on fire, like gasoline, propane, or kerosene, needs to be kept in a safe container, outside the home in a garage or shed. If any of these are in your home, a grown-up should move these items outside immediately, and keep them in a locked shed or garage.