Markham fire service challenges you to 'Get Loud' by testing your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms

Yorkregion.com
Oct. 5, 2021

Oct. 3 to 9 is Fire Prevention Week and Markham Fire Services wants you to learn the sounds of fire safety.

Working alarms save lives, but almost 60 per cent of home fire deaths occur in homes with no smoke alarms, 41 per cent where smoke alarms did not operate and 16 per cent where smoke alarms were not connected to the home’s electricity supply or to batteries, according to the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Smoke Alarms in US Home Fires report.

People tend to remove alarm batteries or dismantle them because they are annoyed by the alarms when they go off, however, silent alarms mean there is now no early warning of smoke or carbon monoxide, both of which can lead to injury or death.

At the very least, disabled or missing alarms can lead to problems with home insurance claims made following a fire.

This Fire Prevention Week, the Markham fire department wants to make sure your smoke and CO alarms work and you “learn the sounds of fire safety,” so you can respond immediately when you hear them.

It offers the following tips to stay safe:

• Replace any alarms that are more than 10 years old.

• Replace alarm batteries every six months. A good way to remember is to replace them every time you change your clocks for daylight savings.

• If the alarm chirps, it might mean the battery is low and needs to be replaced.

• If the alarm continues to chirp after the batteries are replaced, it may mean the alarm itself may not be working properly and needs to be replaced.

• Test all smoke and CO alarms to make sure they are working. Press the test button every month.

• If the alarms are easily set off by smoky home cooking, clean your hood vent regularly or get a stronger one.

• If there is someone in your household who is deaf or hard of hearing, install bed shaker and strobe light alarms that will alert that person to fire.

 

For more information about Fire Prevention Week, including home escape plans, visit yourvoicemarkham.ca/FirePrevention. For more fire safety tips and information, visit markham.ca/fire.