At approximately 6:00am on Saturday morning, a fire broke out in one unit of a townhouse complex located near Yew Street and Nanton Avenue. We provide alarm monitoring and response service for one of the other townhouses that are part of the same building.
Although we do not yet know what caused the fire, we do know that the fire traveled through the walls of the structure and smoke was detected inside our client’s suite a few doors away where we have a monitored smoke detector. As a result, we immediately called the Fire Department as well as sent members of our mobile response team to the house. When we got on-site, we met with the client and confirmed that everyone in his home was safe.
As our client is hard of hearing, he slept through the initial noise and commotion of the Fire Department arriving to his neighbours suite (someone else noticed the flames at the other suite and called 911 prior to the smoke making its way into our clients home) and only woke up as a result of the two sirens that we had installed inside his suite to ensure that he could hear the alarm in the event of an emergency such as this.
This incident serves as a good reminder about the importance of having monitored fire detection devices in your home… as well as ensuring that everyone in your family would be able to hear the alarm sounding should it go off.
Do you have anyone in your home who is hard of hearing or might need special assistance in an emergency?
If yes, call us to arrange for a test of your alarm to ensure that they can hear the siren when the alarm sounds. For most clients who have advised us of this special consideration, we have added both an additional siren in that person’s bedroom as well as a strobe light that will also flash any time the alarm is sounding. It is also very important that we are aware of any residents with special needs so that we can advise the Fire Department during our initial dispatch so that they know that there might be someone on-site who requires special assistance and/or may not be aware of the alarm in the first place.
Pets?
Likewise, we should also know about any pets that you have so that we can also have that information available in the event that there is a fire at your home.
When was the last time you replaced your smoke detectors?
Most smoke detector manufacturers will recommend that the devices get replaced every 6-10 years. This is because of the natural accumulation of dust and dirt that will eventually clog up the detector and inhibit its ability to detect smoke in the event of an actual fire. Our recommendation is that all smoke detectors get replaced every 3-5 years to ensure that they are clean and operating at peak performance. How long has it been since you last replaced your smoke detectors?
Click here to be notified every time this blog gets updated.