When you move your clocks one hour forward this weekend, please take time to also check on the condition of your smoke detectors. This check-up applies to every home, whether the smoke detectors are hard-wired into the elctricity or they are battery-operated and screwed into the ceiling or wall.
Fire Departments now know that the most common type of smoke detector currently in houses and apartments, the ionization detector, does not respond quickly enough to a slow-burning, smoldering type of fire. Another family suffered the loss of three children last month in Pennsylvania when their ionization detectors failed to alarm on time for the children to escape or the adults to rescue them from a smoldering fire.
* Look on the back of your detectors to find the manufacture date. If your detector is 10 years old, it is at the end of its useful life cycle. Smoke detectors average a 3% failure rate per year. After 10 years, that means a 30% failure rate. If you have electric, hard-wired smoke detectors that do not have a battery back-up, they are likely more than 10 years old!
*Look on the back of your detector to determine whether the unit is IONIZATION or PHOTOELECTRIC. If you cannot find either word but you see "contains a small amount of radioactive material", then you know that you have an ionization unit. If all of your detectors are ionization and they are less than 7 years old, purchase at least one PHOTOELECTRIC detector for each level of your home as soon as possible. This will give your family a much higher chance of being alerted to a slow-burning, smoldering type of fire such as those that start in wiring or from smoking materials.
* If you have long-lasting lithium batteris, test them to make sure they are still operating. If you put 9-volt alkaline batteries into your detectors in the past few months, test them to make sure they still work. Also, purchase some back-up batteries so that you don't have an unprotected house for ANY amount of time when the battery begins to "chirp" that it needs replacement.
* If you have a newer home with just hardwired ionization detectors, install at least one screw-in PHOTOELECTRIC detector on every level of the house or have an electrician replace some of the ionizaiton units with photoelectric ones.
* Don't be fooled by prices. A photoelectric smoke detector costs between $12 and $18. A dual-sensor (ionization and photoelectric combined) detector runs between $25 and $30. To date, these dual-sensor units are only the battery-operated type. They have not yet been made for hardwired detectors.
*Thank you for taking the time to make sure that your family is always protected with working smoke detectors and a good fire escape plan. If you have questions about firesafety in your home, please call the Spokane Fire Department at 625-7058 or stop by your neighborhood fire station.
PROBABLE CAUSE: N/A
DAMAGE EXTENT: N/A
DOLLAR LOSS: 0
FIREFIGHTER RESPONSE: 0
MUTUAL AID: None Given
For more information on this release, please call (509)625-7002 and/or check out the SFD Blog at http://www.spokanefire.blogspot.com/
END OF RELEASE
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