Take Fast Action When You Hear Your Smoke Detector

This year’s Fire Prevention Week theme is to learn the sounds of fire safety and the meaning behind what you’re hearing.

East 52 Volunteer Fire Department Chief James King said smoke and carbon monoxide detectors will tell you two things: It’s time to change the batteries or to get out of the house immediately.

King said the last thing you want to do is ignore a chirp.

“If your smoke alarm is beeping at your or if it’s over 10 years old, go ahead and swap it out, it’s a very good thing and very preventative,” King said. “We actually had a fire in our local town this week where smoke detectors might have saved a whole families life. So they’re very, very important.”

King said they see very few carbon monoxide detectors. However, he has responded to calls where people needed to be saved from carbon monoxide poisoning.

“I’ve seen people on house boats get carbon monoxide poisoning, be unconscious,” King said. “We go and get them out of the house boats because there’s another house boat sitting beside them with a generator running while they had their windows open. I’ve seen that happen a lot. It’s an odorless gas that you can’t see, so how can you prevent it without one or how can you know it’s there?”

King said that during fire prevention week the message is still the same to plan an escape route for the home in case of an emergency. He said to practice your plan until it becomes muscle memory, finding a safe place in the yard for everyone to meet.