Did You Remember? Change Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm Batteries

Did you remember to change the batteries in your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide (CO) alarms when you changed your clocks last weekend? If not, do it today.

“Properly working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms can save lives by alerting you to a fire or to poisonous carbon monoxide in your home,” said Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairman Inez Tenenbaum. “In order to work properly, alarms need fresh batteries at least once every year.”

In addition to changing batteries every year, CPSC recommends consumers test their alarms monthly.

According to the CPSC, fire departments responded to an estimated 385,100 residential fires nationwide that resulted in an estimated 2,470 civilian deaths, 12,600 injuries and $6.43 billion in property losses annually, on average, from 2005 through 2007.

The National Fire Prevention Association also offers the following tips regarding installation, maintenance and testing of smoke alarms:

Installation

• At least one smoke alarm should be located on every level of the home, including the basement, as well as in every sleeping room and outside each sleeping area.

• NFPA strongly recommends either installing combination smoke alarms, or both ionization and photoelectric alarms, in the home. An ionization alarm is typically more responsive to a flaming fire, such as a pan fire. A photoelectric alarm is typically more responsive to a smoldering fire, as might occur where a lighted cigarette is dropped on a sofa. Combination smoke alarms have ionization and photoelectric capabilities.

• Whatever type of smoke alarms you choose, they should carry the label of a recognized testing laboratory.

• Interconnected smoke alarms offer the best protection; when one sounds, they all do. This is particularly important in larger or multi-story homes, where the sound from distant smoke alarms may be reduced to the point that it may not be loud enough to provide proper warning, especially for sleeping individuals.

• A licensed electrician can install either hard-wired multiple-station alarms, or wireless alarms, which manufacturers have more recently begun producing. An electrician can also replace existing hard-wired smoke alarms with wireless interconnection capabilities.

Maintenance and Testing

• Test smoke alarms at least once a month using the test button, and make sure everyone in your home knows their sound.

• If an alarm “chirps,” warning the battery is low, replace the battery right away.

• Replace all smoke alarms, including alarms that use 10-year batteries and hard-wired alarms, when they’re 10 years old (or sooner) if they do not respond properly when tested.

Outside your home, ADT Security Services offers the following advice for preventing fires:

• When buying, building or renovating your home, make sure all roofing materials are fire resistant.

• Clean your gutters regularly. Dry leaves and evergreen needles in rain gutters can easily catch fire.

• Trim back any tree limbs that are within 10 feet of your chimney and dead limbs overhanging your home to prevent them from catching fire.

• To prevent sparks or embers from wildfires from entering and igniting your home and triggering a residential fire alarm, place screens with openings of ½" or smaller over all attic and foundation vents.

• Store firewood and other combustibles away from your home, and keep the lid on your trash can.

• To make sure firefighters can find your house if a residential fire alarm is triggered. Post your address prominently.

• Maintain your landscape to eliminate dead vegetation that could catch fire and use fire-resistant plants.

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House to House is written by Amy Glover Bryant and distributed weekly by the Arkansas Realtors® Association.