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I hate smoke alarms. I broiled two T- Bone steaks for dinner tonight, and as usual turned on the oven fan, ceiling fan, cracked the oven door a bit, opened the front door, opened the back door,opened the windows. 4 minutes on one side, 4 minutes on the other side, no visible stream of smoke and you guessed it------screek, screek, screek, screek, screek, off goes not just one, but two smoke alarms. Are peoples lives really saved by these things? I mean, I'm a light sleeper anyway, I wake up if a frog crosses the lawn. And my wife is a chronic insomniac. Guess we should yank em out and put em back if we ever sell the joint.

POLICE BEAT

Smoke alarm saves family

A smoke alarm is being credited with giving five members of a Mililani family adequate time to escape their burning home early this morning. Fire Capt. Kenison Tejada said seven fire units responded to the two-alarm fire on Makapipipi Street, which was reported at 3:23 a.m.



"The front half of the house was fully involved when firefighters got there," Tejada said. "The owner of the house told me the smoke alarm first alerted him that there was a problem and he was able to get all of the others out of the house."



At home when the fire broke out were the owner, a man in his 50s; his parents, who are in their 80s; the homeowner's daughter, in her 30s; and the owner's granddaughter who is in her early teens.



The fire was declared under control at 3:49 a.m. and there were no injuries, Tejada said.





SMOKE ALARM SAVES FAMILY IN HOUSE FIRE

21/04/2005



A SMOKE alarm saved a family from injury when their home in Woking caught fire at 1am on Sunday.



Firefighters received three 999 calls directing them to Holly Close, off St John’s Hill Road, to deal with a blaze thought to have started in the roof space.

Six fire engines attended the fire and it took them three hours to get it under control because it was so intense.

It took the crews a further 45 minutes to put it out. An ambulance was called and one person was taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.





The fire destroyed the roof of the house, while the upstairs floor was badly smoke damaged. The ground floor sustained water damage.

Part of St John’s Hill Road was closed throughout Sunday while firefighters investigated. Firefighters remained at the house until 1pm and returned at 5.30pm to carry out an inspection.

A Surrey Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: “This property did have a smoke alarm and this gave occupants valuable time to escape the building. We recommend that every home in Surrey has a smoke alarm fitted and regularly tested.”





Smoke alarm saves Sisters resident

By Jim Fisher, Correspondent


A working smoke alarm most likely saved the life of a Sisters resident during an early Monday morning house fire, according to Dave Wheeler, fire marshal for the Sisters-Camp Sherman Rural Fire Protection District.



George Hargraves was awakened by a smoke alarm about 1 a.m. at his residence at 415 East Washington St. in Sisters. He immediately left the house and called 911 on his cell phone. Firefighters responded from the Sisters Fire Hall just three blocks away.



Quick detection and a fast response resulted in only interior damage to the structure estimated at between $5,000 and $10,000, according to Wheeler. Most damage was to the wall behind the wood stove, he added.



Two engines and 20 firefighters from the Sisters-Camp Sherman Rural Fire Protection District responded to the fire. They were aided by an engine and six firefighters from the Black Butte Ranch RFPD and one engine from the Cloverdale RFPD.



Five other firefighters from Sisters reported to the Sisters Fire Hall to be ready to respond to other fires or emergency medical runs. The fire was controlled by 2 a.m. No injuries were reported.



"We always take major action on house fires in a residential area," Wheeler stated, explaining the number of firefighters responding to the call. "In addition, safety regulations require that for every firefighter inside a burning structure, we have another one outside for any potential rescue effort."



Hargraves had moved into the rental property about a month ago. At that time, smoke alarms were checked, according to Kevin Dyer, who owns the property with his wife Debbie, and Chuck Newport.



"We found batteries missing from one alarm and another alarm completely gone," Dyer said. "We replaced these and we are really pleased that they were working."



"The property owners and the renter did a great job in checking the batteries and the smoke detector before the fire occurred," Wheeler said. "Checking the detectors very possibly saved the occupant's life and definitely saved the home. With the early alert, the department was able to do a quick knockdown of the fire with minimal damage."



Every year, fire kills an estimated 4,000 Americans and injures another 30,000, Wheeler said.



Most fatal fires that occur in residences happen between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.



Wheeler recommends that smoke alarms be placed on every level of the home, outside each sleeping area and in every bedroom.





Smoke alarm saves woman and baby





A Jersey woman and her six-month-old baby have had a lucky escape after a piece of lit tissue paper was pushed through the letterbox of their flat. It is thought it happened in the early hours of Friday at their third floor home at La Collette in Green Street.



A smoke alarm woke 24-year-old Katrina Wall and her son.



Although they were not injured, Ms Wall is said to be very upset and shaken by the accident. The curtains inside the front door were slightly damaged.





Smoke alarm saves two Canterbury pensioners



January 10, 2005 The life-saving potential of smoke alarms was clearly illustrated when Canterbury firefighters attended a flat fire in Military Road, Northgate.



The alarm sounded after fire broke out in the front room of a ground-floor flat on Thursday last week, alerting two occupants upstairs who then called for help. One of them, a 61-year-old man, had to be rescued and given first aid. The other from the property next door, a 71-year-old female, was unhurt.



Canterbury Sub Officer Dave Hudson was in charge of the incident. He said: “The occupants of the flats below were out at the time but luckily the smoke alarm alerted those above to the fire and continued to sound despite being badly heat damaged. It was a severe fire but thanks to the alarm we were able to help those upstairs in time. Incidents like this continually prove that these small devices really can save your life.”



Here are some essential tips to ensure your smoke alarm can save your life:

• Fit smoke alarms on each level of your home

• Do not put smoke alarms in the kitchen

• Check the battery once a week

• Replace the battery every twelve months

• Battery smoke alarm units should be changed every ten years

• Consider installing ten-year smoke alarms or hard wired alarms

I hate them too! I took mine down long ago. I know all the stories about how they save lives but as a smoker with friends that are smokers it's not logical to have one up. They go off! I despise sudden loud noises. I could have a drink poised at my lips and break the glass on my teeth and injure myself when one of those things go screeching at 90 decibels! I once had one up in an apartment I had when, of course, while cooking, it went off! I frantically raced to it and pulled out the battery. It was still going off! There were noise rules at this place and it was 3am! Panicked and freaking out I ripped the whole thing off the ceiling. It STILL was going off! I threw the disconnected battery AND the plastic alarm into the loo and it STILL was blasting a piercing screech! This is a true story. Befuddled and nearing a coronary I realized there was a SECOND detector in the same room in a cabinet I never used! Needless to say I ripped it down as well. It was no fun fishing the 1st detector out of the toilet. And just so you know, my dinner burned.

:wah: @ Lon. I have this problem cooking steaks too.

It's so frustrating!!! They are supposed to be cooked on high heat if you want the perfect char-grilled medium-rare result. Arrgh.

Where are your smoke detectors positioned? Please tell me not in the kitchen.

I think they're best off in adjoining rooms or hallways, then you can close doors whilst cooking to create temporary barriers.

Seriously though....Don't remove them all together. That would be way too dangerous. Stay safe Lon.

i'll be there when fire-rescue drags your charcoaled incinerated bodies out of the house.

I have to agree with you guys! Although they can save your life, they just seem to be too sensitive. I've ripped mine off the ceiling as well after cooking. I've just moved into a smaller condo and cooked 3 meals 3 days in a row and each time the bloody thing goes wild. I don't want others in the building to panic with that noise while eating dinner. If anything serious happens I know where the fire extinguisher is....

Tan the whole value of smoke detectors is that they detect smoke when you cannot ie; when you are asleep.

The sense of smell is not fully operational when asleep/unconscious. This is when you are most vunerable to primarily smoke inhalation and or burns because you can't detect smoke/noxious fumes until it's too late.

I know they can be frustrating but they really can and do save lives.

I'm with the other pro-smoke alarm folks. I've seen them save lives. When your sleeping, you don't realize the faint smoke is affecting the oxygen your breathing in. As the smoke thickens and replaces the oxygen, you go deeper and deeper into unconscousness.



And I usually set mine off when I broil steaks too. Scares the heck out of me everytime.

"Relocate Them" to another part of your house. Closer to your Bedroom, if they are already close to the the BR, then "inside" the BR! :guitarist

Can`t agree with you on this one I`m afraid, Lon - better to have your sleep disturbed than to wake up with lung damage, and find your wife and kids dead and your house destroyed, surely?

Before we moved, my dog would run under the bed each time I went into the kitchen (she was just expecting the smoke alarms to go off each time). Now, in our new house, the alarms are in better positions. I don't have that much trouble any longer.

It's funny after I took down my smoke detector I went to bed with my oven left on last night. This post made me think...alot. Ironic or what? Okay you got me I'm convinced! Yay smoke alarms!

yeah id way prefer to spend 8 months in hospital recovering from 3rd degree burns going through several operations to try and reconstruct what once was my face, at least id have had a ciggie undisturbed and have cooked my supper in peace for the last 3 months....

in fact id way prefer being dead and leaving behind all my family



and if my kids can learn from me the annoyance of smoke alarms so they dont have them and face the above then all the better..... and if they could pass that to their grandkids.....



sorry for the sarcasm but seriously there is NO excuse for not having a smoke alarm....

I agree with you pink. If you know something's going to set it off, unplug the battery and plug it back in ASAP. Much better being annoyed than dead or fried.