Smoke Detectors

Post by **Kid** » January 5, 2008, 2:47 am

Do you have them in your home, if not GO GET THEM. If you do check the Batteries.

I was on my way home from Work Wed nite and my Wife called and said our neighbors house was on fire, it was a electrical fire in the attic and they were very lucky as they had a Guy looking at why they were blowing circuits and another neighbor pulled in his drive and told him he had smoke coming from his attic vents. No one was injured and the house was not destroyed so they feel they were actually lucky. Since it was in the attic I am sure the place would have been ablaze by the time the smoke detectors went off but atleast they would have gotten out alive. I am going to go today and buy all new ones for our House and I called all my Kids and told them to install them if they did not have them and if they did to change the batteries in them now...............Kid

ghostflamed66 · Post by **ghostflamed66** » January 5, 2008, 7:55 am

Never thought about putting them in the attic. Will be getting some today.
Glad nobody got hurt, and it was not worse.
Wes

Post by **Greg D** » January 5, 2008, 8:14 am

Got 2 kinds, main one runs off the house electrical current with a battery backup in case of power outage. Also have a couple of the battery operated ones in other locations.

Post by **Kid** » January 5, 2008, 10:53 am

Wes, I never thought about it either but I am putting 2 in my Attic, 1 on each end...........Darrell

Truckfarmer · Post by **Truckfarmer** » January 6, 2008, 12:35 pm

Get a Co2 detector too. It is an odorless, colorless killer that the neighbors won't be able to see. No warning.

CaliRob · Post by **CaliRob** » January 6, 2008, 8:15 pm

I personally would recomend having the hard wired ones installed. the reason is this. the hard wired smoke detectors have a signal wire that travels with the power wires and if one detector goes off they all will go off so no matter were you are in the house youll here it..

rob

Johnny Canuck · Post by **Johnny Canuck** » January 7, 2008, 11:48 am

Never lived in a House I owned that was old enough NOT to have them. New houses have hard wired ones with battery back up built in.
They are soon gonna legislate CO2 detectors , also, which go off every time the wiind blows due to the change in ions I am told.

GLindley · Post by **GLindley** » January 7, 2008, 12:03 pm

Johnny Canuck wrote:...which go off every time the wiind blows due to the change in ions I am told.

Well, then, Jc, the solution is simple! Just don't blow (or break) any wind in your house, and you'll be fine!!

jimbeamalki · Post by **jimbeamalki** » January 7, 2008, 5:28 pm

I bought my 3 daughters smoke detectors for Christmas presents and my wife bought me 2 for my birthday in December. They were all 'dual-sensor', which is what you're supposed to be using now. The old types were 'ionization'(recognizes open flame but not too good in detecting smoldering fires), and 'photoelectric'(recognizes smoldering fires but slow to recognize open flame). Big write up in the paper here back in October, cause one family had detectors that didn't work on the type of fire they had. Daughter and boyfriend in Oregon started burning wood last fall cause furnace was on the fritz, and I figured it would be a good idea to get them for everybody.

Post by **Kid** » January 7, 2008, 10:00 pm

I thought about the hard wired ones but not sure I like the idea of all of them going off at once. If a fire does break out they will all be going off and I dont think you would be sure where the fire was if you were asleep. If you put in single ones atleast when it goes off you know where to start looking or where stay away from while you are trying to get out. I am going to install a couple of CO2 detectors next. I put up 8 Smoke detectors and am putting 2 more in the attic. I will be putting the CO2 ones on the main level and 1 in the basement by the Furnace...............Kid

ICEMAN6166 · Post by **ICEMAN6166** » January 8, 2008, 12:11 am

hard wired only detectors are useless when you have a power failure and this is the time (especially in winter) that other types of heat may be used such as kerosene heaters ,gas/lp cooking stove, etc. so a battery powered one is a good thing to have.

3-10-98 lost our entire house and everything i owned that was inside to a fire.
we live outside the fire service area,so no FD will come here. thought of getting an old fire truck but if its not kept inside and heated that is useless too in winter.

Johnny Canuck · Post by **Johnny Canuck** » January 8, 2008, 9:38 am

Kid wrote:I thought about the hard wired ones but not sure I like the idea of all of them going off at once. If a fire does break out they will all be going off and I dont think you would be sure where the fire was if you were asleep. If you put in single ones atleast when it goes off you know where to start looking or where stay away from while you are trying to get out. I am going to install a couple of CO2 detectors next. I put up 8 Smoke detectors and am putting 2 more in the attic. I will be putting the CO2 ones on the main level and 1 in the basement by the Furnace...............Kid

Wow, Captain safety!! Don't burn the toast !!

Ice I know what you are talking about. Buddy of mine lived in a wood heated cabin, out of the fire service area, with no running water. The main floor of the cabin was 80 years old, he renovated it and added a second floor. NO ONE would insure him for fire. (or anything else)

ICEMAN6166 · Post by **ICEMAN6166** » January 8, 2008, 12:25 pm

it applies to vehicles too, unless you may start a forest fire, then the forest service will come put out the trees or keep from starting. needless to say we have extinguishers in house and trucks.
at least we had some insurance, funny thing a week or 2 before the insurance co. called and tried to get us to increase our amount of coverage. glad we did not as i think they would not have paid off so soon after an increase.
whole thing was the fault of the drunken idiot had run into me @ 70 mph a few months before and broken my foot and ankle.was not able to finish the roof shingles and some glowing red cherrys escaped the top of the chimney and landed on the wood.