Commentary - Smoke Alarms: a sound you can live with Published Sept. 30, 2010 By Staff Sgt. Scott Edgmond Nellis Fire Prevention NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. -- Eleven years ago when I was a junior in high school, I came home one day to a sound that helped save my family. We've all heard the sound either at work or at home. "Beep!! Beep!! Beep!!"--the shrill shrieking of a smoke alarm. I yelled the typical salutation, "MOM! I'M HOME!" When there was no reply, I immediately started looking around the house for the cause of the alarm. Upstairs, on the main floor and downstairs, I found nothing. "The smoke detectors don't lie," I thought to myself, so there had to be a problem. I decided I should do a secondary search around the house to make sure. Nothing upstairs, nothing on the main floor, and nothing in the basement. Then I noticed a flickering coming from my brother's room in the basement. I opened the door to find my brothers desk engulfed with three foot flames. Quickly I grabbed a small bucket and started running from the shower to the room until the fire was out. My first taste of firefighting, and I loved it. It is a great story that I tell now and again, but my family was truly lucky that we didn't lose everything because my brother had left a candle burning when he went to school. I can attribute my success with putting the fire out to the immediate notification that I received from the smoke detectors in our household. This upcoming week is the annual Fire Prevention Week and this year's theme is "Smoke Alarms: a sound you can live with." To me and the thousands of people affected by fires annually, it is a sound that has saved lives and will continue to save lives for years to come. Everyone working on any military instillation is lucky because we are given the keys to succeed when it comes to fires. All base housing and all facilities on base should have some kind of fire alarm system, but just because you have the alarm system in doesn't mean that it is a working system. If you live off base and you don't have any smoke detectors, get some immediately. Here are a few things to know about placement and maintenance of your smoke detectors: · Install smoke alarms on every level. · Place alarms outside each sleeping area. · Replace batteries every year, including back-up batteries in electrical alarms; if alarms chirp, replace batteries immediately. · Test alarms at least once a month. · Install new alarms when the devices are 10 years old. Although 96 percent of American households have at least one smoke alarm, the National Fire Protection Agency found that roughly half of the home fire deaths occur in that tiny share of homes with no alarms. The NFPA also says that about one fifth of all smoke alarms aren't working - mostly due to dead or missing batteries. These are problems we can overcome, starting here on Nellis. Just having smoke alarms cuts your chances of dying in a home fire nearly in half. Plan a home fire escape drill and you cut your chances even more. Practice good fire prevention and you'll do even better. Never disconnect a smoke alarm or remove a battery in response to accidental activation. If steam from the bathroom or cooking fumes causes the smoke alarm to go off, fan the air near the alarm until the signal stops. Later, if you want to move the smoke alarm farther away from the kitchen and bath, you may be able to prevent future nuisance alarms. Be aware this could present a delayed signal if a cooking fire does start. Also, try dusting or vacuuming the alarm, or if it is an older unit consider replacing it. The most important thing to remember is that smoke detectors save lives. So don't wait until it is too late to make sure you have working smoke detectors in your house.
