Smoke Detectors- Why your's may not go off at all!

Thanks so much - EXCELLENT article-

I'm going to notify my children about this, they each have smoke detectors in their home.

My sons' dorm had a fire 5 or so years ago; the kids ignored the alarm - they thought it was a joke at first!

Luckily most everyone got out in time, but the arsonist died and seriously injured his roommate. The terrible thing is, this "arsonist" was disturbed obviously, (think Cho), and had BEEN KICKED OUT OF ANOTHER DORM nearby for starting a fire.

Since they were private dorms, I guess no one communicated, and was there no background check? I was furious. I'm sure there must have been a lawsuit.

Fires, or being trapped in a fire, is just a horrible thing. I can't imagine. I was so glad most of the kids finally woke up and got out of the dorm. (It was first thing in the morning; I'm sure the arsonist planned it that way)

The boy was an immigrant student, from India or Pakistan (I can't remember the country for sure) He was obviously disturbed; no one liked him.

It situation could have been MUCH worse than it turned out; because it was an older dorm with no sprinklers.

Fire is horrible; always have a plan of escape with family, a door or window you plan to go out of, and working smoking detectors. Practice walking low to the ground with your family; the smoke is usually worse up high. Get a ladder that you can quickly attach over an upstairs window and go down. (I used to keep mine under the bed, so I could quickly throw it over a nearby window, step down to the lst floor roof, and get down. Make sure your circuit board on the outside of the house is not overloaded; it is easy to overload. It pays to have an electrician come check.

MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS TURNED OFF BEFORE YOU GO TO BED
 
HA, mine sure works.. I seem to set it off a few times a year when I cook :crazy: I've had that same battery since 1997 and it's still works.. I live in a small condo and the smoke detector is right near the kitchen.. I guess that is a good place to keep it :waitasec: ... hum, then again not sure the neighbors think so... hehe
 
This must have been what happened to my 20 year old cousin. She was at her boyfriend's house in Florida during Hurricane Ivan. It is thought that they may have been cooking something when the power went out and didn't turn off the stove. When the power came back on, whatever was left on the stove caught fire. The boyfriend was found on the couch with his dog. It appeared as if he and the dog were napping on the couch when they died. My cousin was found in an upstairs bathroom. They did not die from flames, but from suffocation due to lack of oxygen. It sounds like the exact kind of scenerio talked about in this article. I've often wondered why the boyfriend and the dog didn't wake up hearing a smoke detector and why my cousin didn't get out. Maybe the smoke detectors never went off. :mad:
 
How terrible! You think you are safe. Our are wired into our electric system and are super sensitive to smoke. I do wonder if we should have a battery operated one as backup though.
 
How terrible! You think you are safe. Our are wired into our electric system and are super sensitive to smoke. I do wonder if we should have a battery operated one as backup though.

We had paid to have electric detectors installed in our last house. The state mandates a check when you sell. None of our worked at all! (Yes, we were lucky to find out that way.)
 
if i fry bacon ours goes off. I have wondered if a cigarette would set them off but don't want to take up smoking to find out.
 
Not sure what kind I have...but the dang things are all connected...one goes off, they all go... and it seems like they all start up if I get too mad :furious:
 
We ripped out our fire detectors because they kept going off whenever we'd burn some toast--Its been nice and quiet for 5 years now
 
Well I just got off the phone with our local fire department. I did have the ionization kind but its 8 years old so Im not going to have them replace it. I am shopping for a new one though.

I regularly had mine go off with food and figured it must work fine, the fire chief who happens to be my neighbor, said that a food is a larger smoke particle so it is picked up by ionization smoke detectors but the smoke that slowly grow are smaller particles and generally will take awhile or once in awhile not pick it up. So apparently food is not a good indicator if your smoke alarm is not working. Im going to look around on the net for a photoelectric and post it when I find one for anyone else that is interested.

Marthatex-How scary of what happened to your son's dorm and thanks for the fire tips.

Sillygoose- Im sorry that happened to your cousin and her boyfriend.

Nova- You are very lucky that you found out they weren't working.



ETA- Part two of the story, it has visuals and lists the brands they tested. Mine is the first alert ionization, 42 minutes is too long.

http://www.wthr.com/global/Story.asp?s=6554435
 
HA, mine sure works.. I seem to set it off a few times a year when I cook :crazy: I've had that same battery since 1997 and it's still works.. I live in a small condo and the smoke detector is right near the kitchen.. I guess that is a good place to keep it :waitasec: ... hum, then again not sure the neighbors think so... hehe

PD, I thought for years the battery in mine was 'bionic' or something, it never seemed to poop out. Come to find out it was a hard wire w/battery back-up type :doh:
 
I'm thankful for this article. Our home is older and I'm always fearful of electrical wiring somehow causing a fire. I thought my smoke alarms were fine because they consistently tell the family that dinner will be ready in about 5 minutes. ( :D )

We'll be shopping for new ones tonight.

Or maybe we should just get a reliable dog!

(Peter Hamilton- I sure hope you are joking, or have some type of other precaution in your home.)
 
We ripped out our fire detectors because they kept going off whenever we'd burn some toast--Its been nice and quiet for 5 years now

I don't consider this cute at all, since I went to great lengths describing a dorm fire and how some people died.

The emphasis here is fire safety, really; and you'd be amazed how important it is. Like watch the news?

Having fun trolling today?:rolleyes:
 
HA, mine sure works.. I seem to set it off a few times a year when I cook :crazy:

I was starting to get worried when I read your reply and remembered that happens to when my husband (yeah, right) cooks.... :D Ours work!
 
I don't consider this cute at all, since I went to great lengths describing a dorm fire and how some people died.

The emphasis here is fire safety, really; and you'd be amazed how important it is. Like watch the news?

Having fun trolling today?:rolleyes:

Martha, I don't think it was PH's intention was to upset you, none of us are.

Although I have have had smoke/fire alarms in my home for many of my adult years, I grew up like many here without them.
 
Well guess what I found out, we have the smoke detectors that respond to smoke. Learned this from "experience" last week. We got the grease fire out(thank god), but we "panicked" and I very much thought that we would not get it under control. We do not have "fire extinguishers", but I am now buying them and keeping them in every room in the house.

I was shaking for an hour, seriously, the kids were like OMG..........my husband is like how did this happen.........
 
Well guess what I found out, we have the smoke detectors that respond to smoke. Learned this from "experience" last week. We got the grease fire out(thank god), but we "panicked" and I very much thought that we would not get it under control. We do not have "fire extinguishers", but I am now buying them and keeping them in every room in the house.

I was shaking for an hour, seriously, the kids were like OMG..........my husband is like how did this happen.........

I'm glad you got everything under control Cyber..................yep, get those fire extinguishers
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