Fire marshal: Test smoke alarms during fire prevention week
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
The winter months are the busiest time for fire departments, and as temperatures drop, fire officials are reminding people to check if their smoke alarms are correctly installed and working.
Fire prevention week is Oct. 3 through 9, and the theme this year is "know the sounds of fire prevention." The theme revolves around checking smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in homes and knowing the sounds they make when they need to be replaced.
Missouri Fire Marshal Tim Bean showed ABC 17 crews how to check two different kinds of smoke alarms. Older models use a 9-volt battery, which needs to be replaced every six months. The newer smoke detectors use lithium batteries and are designed to last up to 10 years.
No matter which type you have, everyone should test their smoke alarms once a month by pushing the button on the front and making sure it beeps.
About 60% of deadly house fires happen in homes that do not have functioning smoke alarms, according to the National Fire Protection Association.
"Very tragic things happen when we find we go in to investigate fires where there is not working smoke alarms, and the percentage of you surviving a working fire without a working smoke alarm, it becomes down into the single digits," Bean said.
Working smoke alarms should be in every bedroom, sleeping area and level of a home and should be interconnected to make sure if one goes off, they all go off.
"You need that quick alert so that you can get out of that home and then, of course, stay out," Bean said.
If a person does not have access to working smoke alarms or cannot check and change batteries on their own, the fire marshal advises them to call their local fire department.
The Red Cross has a program with Missouri fire prevention agencies to install free smoke alarms in homes. To date, about 57,000 smoke alarms have been installed in Missouri homes through the program.
