What Safety Measures Have You Added

We have changed some of the individual battery operated smoke detectors to the ones that are linked between the two levels - in addition to the wired in. Not so much because of the pellet stove but due to deaths a couple of years ago of family of 4 that relied on the wired in detectors alone - electrical fire disabled theirs.

Smoke detectors have a ten year life span so make sure they are replaced....

Just upgraded all my smoke alarms to all in one smoke / CO2 detectors. I added an additional one to the wall above the stove.

Got a heat pump there is no longer fire in my house.

I do have a suggestion don't put all the same brand of detectors in your house. Its tempting to buy that 3 or 5 pack and save a few bucks I know.

moey said:

Got a heat pump there is no longer fire in my house.

I do have a suggestion don't put all the same brand of detectors in your house. Its tempting to buy that 3 or 5 pack and save a few bucks I know.

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There may be no fire but there is plenty sources for a fire. Got a clothes dryer? One of the top causes. Prepare a meal in-on a stove another one Should have elaborated last month as it was Fire Prevention month

TimfromMA said:

Just upgraded all my smoke alarms to all in one smoke / CO2 detectors. I added an additional one to the wall above the stove.

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Same here. Will arrive in the mail today.

Bioburner said:

There may be no fire but there is plenty sources for a fire. Got a clothes dryer? One of the top causes. Prepare a meal in-on a stove another one Should have elaborated last month as it was Fire Prevention month

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I was just thinking about the clothes dryer vent the other day ... time to give it a brush as it's been about a year. A local business lost everything from the clothes dryer fire that was in the attached living quarters. They were a newly married couple and lost everything down to the unused wedding presents They were lucky they got out alive - their pit bull woke them up

Added an extra smoke alarm and 2 CO2 detectors. Already had the fire extinguishers.

Peterfield said:

Same here. Will arrive in the mail today.

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Got mine at Lowes.

Peterfield said:

Same here. Will arrive in the mail today.

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Why are you guys detecting CO2? Do you mean CO? Usually CO2 detectors are used for ventilation setbacks and such in commercial settings.

mepellet said:

Why are you guys detecting CO2? Do you mean CO? Usually CO2 detectors are used for ventilation setbacks and such in commercial settings.

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Because I failed high school chemistry.

Yes, I was referring to carbon monoxide.

TimfromMA said:

Because I failed high school chemistry.

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Lol. OK. You had me wondering.....

Talking to some of my Fire / Rescue buddies at work yesterday following the multi-fatality structure fire we had in Maine on Saturday morning, they relayed the importance of having both photoelectric and ionization smoke detection capabilities, for both the smokey / smoldering low flame fire sources, as well as the fast - spreading high flame fire sources. What works for one type of fire / fuel source smoke detection will not work as well for the other type of smoke. So taking theirs and Consumer Reports recommendation's, I just went out this AM and replaced all my 8 year old smoke alarms with the dual photoelectric and ionization sensor alarms, the CR's top recommended Kidde Pi900 model - only about $25 at our local hardware store.

Unfortunately, they don't currently make a dual smoke sensor alarm that also has CO detection capability, so I bought separate First Alert CO615 CO detectors - about $30 each. When it comes to my families life and safety, how can you put a price tag on that and not spend the less than 100 bucks towards the ability to survive a catastrophic house fire? Yet, I see people do that everyday in my EMS profession, where PFI (perceived feeling of immortality) too often trumps any semblance of risk / benefit or causation / mitigation based decision making.

As a poignant side-bar story to the horrific weekend "Animal House" apartment fire that killed the 5 young people in Portland, ME - an EMS buddy I work with was telling me that he transported one of the minor smoke inhalation injured house occupants to the hospital, who related to him during his ambulance transport that the only reason he survived was that he woke up to his alarm clock going off at 7:15 AM and smelled smoke. He opened the bedroom door to find the front and upper floors of the house fully involved in heavy fire and billowing black smoke.

Following a raucous Halloween party they had there the night before, he didn't hear any smoke or CO alarms going off before he and his room mate fortuitously got out. You can guess what their outcomes would have been if he had set his alarm clock for 7:30 or even 7:20 AM, instead of 7:15 AM. "There, by the grace of God, go we......"

Horrifically, he got out the back just as a guy from an upstairs bedroom was jumping out of his 2nd floor window, completely engulfed in flames, who survivors helped roll around on the wet ground in the attempt to extinguish the flames. Ghastly stuff. The survivors who witnessed this will have some serious 'survival guilt' to have to come to grips with and put someplace over the days, months and years to come.

So, 'war stories' aside, replace your smoke and CO detectors at your manufacturers recommended interval, or at no more than 10 years from the products manufacture date !! And replace your detector batteries if you didn't already this past weekend on the traditional "Fall back" daylight savings time clock change.