By Smokey The Dog
Having a working smoke detector in your home is one of the easiest safety precautions you can provide to protect your family and your home. According to the National Fire Protection Agency, you are twice as likely to survive a fire if you have a properly working smoke detector, but 33% of homes do not have one. One fifth of smoke detectors in homes do not work because of dead batteries, missing batteries, or they are disconnected. Every 156 minutes, one person in the United States loses their life due to a house fire.
To keep your smoke detector working properly, the Jacksonville Fire Department recommends checking your batteries every month and replacing them twice a year. Smoke detectors should be installed in every bedroom, within 15 feet outside of every bedroom, and one on every floor. Resetting your clocks in the spring and fall are good times to change your batteries. It is also recommended that you replace your smoke detector every 10 years.
Carbon monoxide detectors are also very important. Carbon monoxide is a bi-product that results from anything that burns such as fuel, automobile exhaust, and cigarette smoke. It is colorless and odorless and therefore is hard to detect. Nearly 5000 people die each year in the United Stated due to Carbon monoxide poisoning, making these detectors just as important as smoke detectors.
The Jacksonville Fire Department, Local 637, and Smokey the fire dog want every home in the city to be protected. We have a limited supply of these detectors available to the community during these tough economic times or if you simply just don’t have access to one. Please call 479-4656 and we will deliver one to your home inside the city limits.
