Have a healthy and safe holiday season!
Fire Safety
Smoke Alarms Save Lives
Smoke alarms are an important part of keeping you and your family safe from fire. Having working smoke alarms in your home reduces your risk of dying in a fire by 50 percent! Smoke alarms save lives by providing an early warning of danger and giving you precious time to escape from fire.
Fire safety experts recommend that smoke alarms be installed on every floor of the home. In addition, smoke alarms should be installed inside every bedroom and outside of the sleeping area (in the hallway). It is also a good idea to install smoke alarms at critical points along your escape path. For example, put a smoke alarm at the bottom of a stairwell to warn you if the room below is full of smoke. Also, if you take frequent naps in a particular room that is not a bedroom, such as a sun room or family room, consider installing a smoke alarm there, too!
Types of Smoke Alarms
Smoke alarms come in two types – ionization and photoelectric. The name refers to the type of technology used to sense the smoke. Ionization alarms are better at sensing fast, flaming fires, such as cooking fires. Photoelectric alarms are best at sensing smoldering fires, such as upholstery fires. For maximum protection, you should have both types of smoke alarms in your home.
You can also buy interconnected smoke alarms. These will send a signal to each other so that when one smoke alarm goes off, they all go off. This is especially helpful if your home has more than one floor or is a larger home. It also provides peace of mind if you have family members who may need help escaping from a fire, such as small children, an elderly adult, or someone with a mobility impairment, who often spends time in another part of your home.
There are also smoke alarms available for those with a hearing impairment. These smoke alarms will flash a very bright strobe light when the alarm is activated. Another type of smoke alarm for the hearing impaired is the “shaker” alarm. This technology uses a disc or mat that you place on the seat of a chair, under a bed pillow, or on top of a mattress. The disc/mat will vibrate to alert you in the event of a fire. There are also other technologies available that include alarms with different pitches and frequencies, alarms with higher decibel sounds, and alarms with different patterns of alerts.
Finally, you should use smoke alarms that have a long life battery. This assures that your smoke alarm will always have the power it needs to protect you and your family. In New York state, a law will become effective on January 1, 2018, that will require all smoke alarms sold to have a non-removable long-life battery sealed inside the smoke alarm. These smoke alarms can be purchased NOW!
Smoke Alarm Maintenance
Smoke alarms should be tested monthly to make sure they are still working. This is as simple as pressing the TEST button with a broom handle or the end of a long cooking spoon. Test your smoke alarm the same day you regularly do something else every month and it will become a habit!
Smoke alarms also need to be cleaned to removed any dust, cobwebs, pet fur, or other buildup that may have made its way into the detection unit. This is as simple as using a hair dryer to blow air at the smoke alarm for a few seconds to dislodge the debris. You can also use the extension hose from your vacuum cleaner around the edges and surface of the smoke alarm. It only takes a few seconds to perform this routine maintenance, but it will keep your smoke alarm in good working condition and keep you and your family safe!
If a smoke alarm chirps, replace the battery immediately. If it has a sealed battery compartment, replace the entire smoke alarm. All smoke alarms should be replaced after 10 years, even if they appear to still work.
Cooking Safety
What you should know about home cooking safety
- Be on alert! If you are sleepy or have consumed alcohol, don’t use the stove or stove top.
- Stay in the kitchen while you are frying, grilling, boiling, or broiling food.
- If you are simmering, baking, or roasting food, check it regularly, remain in the kitchen while food is cooking, and use a timer to remind you that you are cooking.
- Keep anything that can catch fire — oven mitts, wooden utensils, food packaging, towels or curtains — away from your stove top.
If you have a cooking fire
- Just get out! When you leave, close the door behind you to help contain the fire.
- Call 9-1-1 or the local emergency number after you leave.
- If you try to fight the fire, be sure others are getting out and you have a clear way out.
- Keep a lid nearby when you’re cooking to smother small grease fires. Smother the fire by sliding the lid over the pan and turn off the stovetop. Leave the pan covered until it is completely cooled.
- For an oven fire, turn off the heat and keep the door closed.
Learn how a few simple safety tips can protect you and your family from a potentially devastating home fire.
Safety considerations for cooking with oil
- Always stay in the kitchen when frying on the stove top.
- Keep an eye on what you fry. If you see wisps of smoke or the oil smells, immediately turn off the burner and/or carefully remove the pan from the burner. Smoke is a danger sign that the oil is too hot.
- Heat the oil slowly to the temperature you need for frying or sautéing.
- Add food gently to the pot or pan so the oil does not splatter.
- Always cook with a lid beside your pan. If you have a fire, slide the lid over the pan and turn off the burner. Do not remove the cover because the fire could start again. Let the pan cool for a long time. Never throw water on the fire.
- If the fire does not go out or you don’t feel comfortable sliding a lid over the pan, get everyone out of your home. Call the fire department from outside.
Cooking fire facts
Based on 2014-2018 annual averages:
- Two-thirds of home cooking fires start with the ignition of food or other cooking materials.
- Clothing is the item first ignited in less than 1% of these fires, but clothing ignitions caused 8% of the home cooking fire deaths.
- Ranges or cook tops account for three-fifths of home cooking fire incidents.
- Unattended equipment is a factor in one-third of reported home cooking fires and over half of the associated deaths.
- Frying dominates the cooking fire problem.
Source: NFPA Applied Research
* Homes include one- and two-family homes, apartments (regardless of ownership), and manufactured housing.
Carbon Monoxide Alarms
Although the popularity of carbon monoxide (CO) alarms has been growing in recent years, it cannot be assumed that everyone is familiar with the hazards of carbon monoxide poisoning in the home.
Often called the invisible killer, carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas created when fuels (such as gasoline, wood, coal, natural gas, propane, oil, and methane) burn incompletely. In the home, heating and cooking equipment that burn fuel are potential sources of carbon monoxide. Vehicles or generators running in an attached garage can also produce dangerous levels of carbon monoxide.
- The dangers of CO exposure depend on a number of variables, including the victim's health and activity level. Infants, pregnant women, and people with physical conditions that limit their body's ability to use oxygen (i.e. emphysema, asthma, heart disease) can be more severely affected by lower concentrations of CO than healthy adults would be.
- A person can be poisoned by a small amount of CO over a longer period of time or by a large amount of CO over a shorter amount of time.
- In 2016, local fire departments responded to an estimated 79,600 carbon monoxide incidents, or an average of nine such calls per hour. This does not include the 91,400 carbon monoxide alarm malfunctions and the 68,000 unintentional carbon monoxide alarms.
- Data from the Center of Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) National Center for Health Statistics shows that in 2017, 399 people died of unintentional non-fire carbon monoxide poisoning.
Safety tips
- CO alarms should be installed in a central location outside each sleeping area and on every level of the home and in other locations where required by applicable laws, codes or standards. For the best protection, interconnect all CO alarms throughout the home. When one sounds, they all sound.
- Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for placement and mounting height.
- Choose a CO alarm that has the label of a recognized testing laboratory.
- Call your local fire department’s non-emergency number to find out what number to call if the CO alarm sounds.
- Test CO alarms at least once a month; replace them according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
- If the audible trouble signal sounds, check for low batteries. If the battery is low, replace it. If it still sounds, call the fire department.
- If the CO alarm sounds, immediately move to a fresh air location outdoors or by an open window or door. Make sure everyone inside the home is accounted for. Call for help from a fresh air location and stay there until emergency personnel.
- If you need to warm a vehicle, remove it from the garage immediately after starting it. Do not run a vehicle or other fueled engine or motor indoors, even if garage doors are open. Make sure the exhaust pipe of a running vehicle is not covered with snow.
- During and after a snowstorm, make sure vents for the dryer, furnace, stove, and fireplace are clear of snow build-up.
- A generator should be used in a well-ventilated location outdoors away from windows, doors and vent openings.
- Gas or charcoal grills can produce CO — only use outside.
Symptoms of CO poisoning
CO enters the body through breathing. CO poisoning can be confused with flu symptoms, food poisoning and other illnesses. Some symptoms include shortness of breath, nausea, dizziness, light hotheadedness or headaches. High levels of CO can be fatal, causing death within minutes.
The concentration of CO, measured in parts per million (ppm) is a determining factor in the symptoms for an average, healthy adult.
- 50 ppm: No adverse effects with 8 hours of exposure.
- 200 ppm: Mild headache after 2-3 hours of exposure.
- 400 ppm: Headache and nausea after 1-2 hours of exposure.
- 800 ppm: Headache, nausea, and dizziness after 45 minutes; collapse and unconsciousness after 1 hour of exposure.
- 1,000 ppm: Loss of consciousness after 1 hour of exposure.
- 1,600 ppm: Headache, nausea, and dizziness after 20 minutes of exposure.
- 3,200 ppm: Headache, nausea, and dizziness after 5-10 minutes; collapse and unconsciousness after 30 minutes of exposure.
- 6,400 ppm: Headache and dizziness after 1-2 minutes; unconsciousness and danger of death after 10-15 minutes of exposure.
- 12,800 ppm: Immediate physiological effects, unconsciousness and danger of death after 1-3 minutes of exposure.
Source: NFPA's Fire Protection Handbook, 20th Edition.
