One of the most important safety measures we have in our homes is a smoke detector. Usually there is one on the first floor and one on the second floor, if you have a two story home.

Our smoke detectors are tied into the house alarm system. A few weeks ago, something malfunctioned and the system sent out a smoke alarm to the fire department. Within minutes we had two fire trucks and six firemen on our doorsteps. Much to our chagrin, the culprit was dead batteries in the detectors. Someone (namely me) had disconnected both the house detectors because the things were beeping and I had not taken the time to get new batteries. I don’t know about you, but I should know better than to leave an important safety device without proper batteries.

How many times have we read in the newspapers of homes burning down only to find that the smoke detectors inside the house had been dismantled?

Each smoke detector has a button that can be pushed to verify proper operation. If yours is located on the ceiling, then use a broom handle to depress the switch. You should hear a loud beep, beep if the unit is working properly. If you hear nothing, you have a problem. Get it checked out. If you hear a chirp, chirp sound every few minutes, it is most likely a low battery signal coming from the unit.

It is a good idea to keep spare 9 volt batteries so that the old ones can be replaced immediately. The shelf life of unused batteries will run several years.

Here are some smoke detector links:

http://www.ul.com/consumers/smoke.html

http://www.nyc.gov/html/fdny/html/safety/firesafety_detect.shtml

http://home.howstuffworks.com/smoke1.htm

http://www.consumersearch.com/www/house_and_home/smoke-detectors/index.html

http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howthingswork/a/aa071401a.htm