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Author: RevolutionStone

Apr 24th 2014 at 5:30:59 AM

* In Hollywood depictions, fires somehow always announce their presence or are immediately obvious to all around. While some RealLife fires do this due to the very nature of how they start (e.g. the food you are cooking starts to burn as you are watching it, the leaf pile burn gets out of control) ''many'' fires (especially those related to electrical wiring or smoldering ashes or the like) start while people are asleep or out of the room, or they begin so small that they aren't noticed by sight or sound. This is why a working smoke detector in all rooms is absolutely lifesaving and absolutely necessary. Install battery-powered smoke detectors, and check the battery every six months. (Smoke detectors on main electric are a bad idea, as they will not work in a power outage or, in some cases, if the wiring itself is on fire as could happen in a major electrical fire.)
** One reason many people don't install smoke detectors is their propensity for alarming over things such as cooking food, a lot of smokers in one space, incense or candles, and the like. This can be solved with two things - the cheapest solution while you are in the space is simply to put a shower cap on over the detector, or remove the detector, while you are awake and in the space watching everything - and take off the shower cap or screw the detector back on to its mounts before bedtime/before leaving the room. More expensive modern smoke detectors such as the Nest type actually have a timed "turn off" setting - for cooking or for when there's a couple of smokers in a room for example.
* ''Carbon monoxide'' detectors, while they aren't fire/smoke detectors, are absolutely necessary if you have gas-burning or wood-burning (or anything-burning, for that matter) appliances or central heating. Carbon monoxide is a lethal gas produced as a byproduct of burning - and it can kill or permanently injure at surprisingly low concentrations (and even if it doesn't, can make you very sick - many people who have had what seems like "chronic winter sickness/flu that never goes away" have actually discovered they were suffering from low-level carbon monoxide poisoning). They should be installed in/around all sleeping areas, with one near the kitchen or other location of the gas-burning appliances. If the alarm goes off, call your local emergency number and evacuate the dwelling to fresh air until professionals have verified it safe for return.
** Also, to protect yourself from carbon monoxide, never run vehicles in closed garages attached to a dwelling, never use barbecues, generators, or other sources of combustion inside a closed or improperly ventilated space - and indoors at all is improperly ventilated for barbecues and generators, both of which should strictly be kept outdoors.
* ''Gas detectors'' are also a good idea to prevent explosions in some circumstances (you are on an independent LPG or propane supply, you use bottled/tanked LPG or propane or the like and store it, the LPG/natural gas/propane supply in your area doesn't have odorant or you have inability to smell, you have a basement or other place gas can collect and live near a pipeline or other source of potential gas leaks, there's a hazard of methane or gasoline fumes accumulating in any specific location). For these, you need to place them properly depending on the type of gas you need to detect - for propane and hexane, for example, you would place a gas detector lower to the ground because both are heavier than air, while for LPG, natural gas, or methane detection you would place it higher since those rise. If a gas detector goes off, ''leave the area immediately'' and call emergency services from a phone in a gas-free location to report the leak.