If you haven’t put much thought into smoke alarms, it’s important that you shift your way of thinking because it can be a matter of life and death, especially if you have a family to protect. Smoke alarms are critical because they can detect a fire early on before it takes people’s lives.
There are many ways that fires start and they can occur in any room in a home, but regardless of how or where a fire starts, one of the best ways to protect your family is to have smoke alarms installed throughout your home.
2,000 Deaths from Residential Fires Annually
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), each year in the United States around 2,000 people die in residential fires. With fire, it’s typical for the deadly gases and smoke to spread even faster than the heat. A lot of people don’t realize that it’s not necessarily the flames or the burns that kill you but inhaling the smoke and toxic gases.
When do most fatal fires occur? The majority of them don’t occur during the day. Instead, they occur at night while people are sleeping. The problem is that since people are fast asleep, they don’t realize there is a fire and it spreads before they can do anything about it. That’s where smoke alarms come in. They work 24 hours a day to alert occupants of a fire.
“About two-thirds of home fire deaths occur in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms. Properly installed and maintained smoke alarms are considered to be one of the best and least expensive means of providing an early warning of a potentially deadly fire and could reduce by almost half the risk of dying from a fire in your home,” according to the CPSC.
Smoke alarms should be installed in the following areas:
- On every level of a home
- Outside sleeping areas
- Inside all bedrooms
Do you need help with a residential or commercial safety inspection, or do you need assistance with smoke alarms in your home or business in the Greater Atlanta Area? To learn more, contact Lightning Bug Electric today!