As much as I do not like this time change, our clocks were turned back one hour Sunday morning. The cliche is, Change your clocks, Change your batteries. In other words, for those of you who have battery-operated or battery-backup smoke alarms, it is important to ensure that you have working batteries. The bottom line is that you need to at least check your smoke alarms by pushing the test button. Smoke alarms should be tested monthly. If your smoke alarms have yellowed or are more than 10 years old, then you need to replace them. The ultimate goal is to have a proper number of properly operating and properly located smoke alarms in your home. For the smoke alarms that are electric with a battery-backup the best thing to do is to change the batteries.
I know that I sound like a broken record on this subject, but I need you to understand the importance that smoke alarms play in your family’s safety and survival, especially while you are sleeping. Let me take this in a different direction and talk about smoke for a moment. Smoke is the byproduct of incomplete combustion. Smoke is capable of burning, but more than anything it will fill a space with unbreathable air. Smoke contains hydrogen cyanide, sulphur dioxide, formaldehyde, and carbon monoxide, just to name a few of the deadly gases that make up the products of combustion.
If you are sleeping and there are no smoke alarms, then you hope that the smoke will wake you up. The problem is that smoke may not wake you up, but put you into a deep state of unconsciousness. If nothing else, even if you do wake up from the smoke, you will very possibly be overcome by the toxins in it. Imagine this: you wake up, but because of the smoke, nothing looks familiar. This is why it is so important to stay low and go, crawling under smoke, so as not to breathe any. Being overcome by smoke will actually cause you to walk toward the problem instead of escaping from it. Firefighters, those trained to deal with smoke, have been led to their death due to the effects of smoke inhalation. In most fire deaths, the actual cause of death was not the fire, but the effects of smoke inhalation.
If you have not done it yet, get up right now and check your smoke alarms. You and your family’s life may depend upon it. As a firefighter, I saw fires that occurred at every hour of the day or night. Though any fire could hurt or kill your family, the greatest probability comes when the fire occurs at night as your family is sleeping. I have said this recently, but it is important to know that your family will wake up when the closest-to-the-bedroom smoke alarms activate. If they do not wake your family up, then you need additional smoke alarms in the bedrooms, which is required for new construction. One alarm in the room, and one alarm outside of the room connected in series, makes for the best opportunity for the entire family to be awakened. I just want you to make sure that your family is safe and prepared in the event that a fire breaks out in your home tonight.
