Smoke and Carbon Monoxide (CO) alarms save lives. Alarms that are properly installed and maintained play a vital role in reducing deaths and injuries from smoke or fire and CO.
If there is a fire in your home, smoke spreads fast. You need smoke alarms to give you time to get out.
Carbon Monoxide is a colorless, odorless toxic gas that can be caused by improperly vented or malfunctioning stoves, furnaces, hot water heaters, and fireplaces, or vehicles or portable generators operating too closely to an occupancy.
Here’s what you need to know!
- A closed door may slow the spread of smoke, heat and fire.
- Install smoke alarms in every sleeping room and on every level of the home.
- CO alarms generally go one on each floor of a home.
- Smoke alarms if hardwired should be interconnected so that when one sounds, they all sound.
- Large homes may need extra alarms
- Test your smoke and CO alarms at least once a month and change batteries twice a year! Press the “test” button to be sure the alarm is working.
- When a smoke alarm sounds, get outside and stay outside.
- Call 911 from a cell phone outside or a neighbor’s home.
- Replace all smoke alarms in your home every 10 years.
- Replace all CO alarms every 5-7 years
Every year in the United States, about 2,500 people die in home fires. Most of these deaths occur in homes that do not have working smoke alarms.
Unintentional carbon monoxide exposure accounts for an estimated 15,000 emergency department visits and 500 unintentional deaths in the United States each year
If you have a problem with your home smoke or carbon monoxide alarms, or if you would like help checking them, please give us a call. We are always willing to assist our residents in making sure they have working alarms or present alarms are working properly.
We have a limited number of CO alarms that can be provided.
The Ridge Road Fire District recently paired with community partner American Red Cross to provide smoke alarms to people in need
To schedule a smoke alarm install, contact the American Red Cross of Rochester:
Email- smokealarms.grc@redcross.org
Visit- www.soundthealarm.org/wcny
Call- 585-241-4390
