Smoke Detectors Save Lives in Missoula

Fire Moves Quickly

A fire can demolish a two-story house within five minutes. Within four minutes, it will have a flashover where it started, igniting everything in the room, raising the temperature to 1,400 degrees F.

Smoke detectors/alarms go off within two minutes of a fire starting; the alarm gives people time to get out of the building. Don’t worry about saving property; lives are much more important.

If you see a small, contained fire (inside a cooking pot, for example), you may have time to extinguish it before the smoke detectors sounds an alarm. If you have any doubt about the location of the fire, whether it is out, or whether you can put it out, get everyone out of the building.

Wildfires can spread to homes or to commercial and public buildings, and there are many ways that fires start indoors. No matter the cause, fire and smoke are both dangerous.

SERVPRO^® of Missoula knows how devastating fire can be, which is why we urge residents and business owners to keep their smoke detectors working.

If there is Smoke Damage or Fire Damage, Call SERVPRO of Missoula

Call us at 406-327-9500. Our emergency service is available 24 hours/day, 365 days/year.

Smoke Detectors Save Lives

• In 53% of U.S. home fires, signals from smoke detectors alerted the fire departments.
• Nearly 60% of home fire deaths happened in homes that had either no smoke detectors or no working smoke detectors.
• In 43% of the homes that had smoke detectors that did not work, the batteries had been removed.
• 25% of smoke-detector failures were a result of dead batteries.

What about False Alarms?

Smoke detectors have improved immensely since 1970, the first year their use became common in U.S. homes. Newer detectors produce false alarms.

Proper installation and use of smoke detectors should result in few, if any, false alarms. Avoiding false alarms requires:

• Use caustic chemicals (such as paint thinner) in well-ventilated areas; if the fumes reach the detectors, the fumes reach your lungs, so wear personal protective equipment (PPE) and don’t work in enclosed areas.
• Ventilate steam (such as from showers or equipment) outside.
• Keep the smoke detectors clean.
• Clear burned food or grease from microwaves, toasters, and ovens, so the material doesn’t send up smoke when someone uses the appliance again.
• Make sure the smoke detectors are not placed directly over the cooking or heating appliances.
• Keep the chimney clean if you use a fireplace.
• Replace smoke detectors or alarms every ten years; false alarms are one sign of aging equipment.
• Dust from remodeling can trigger some alarms, so there is another good reason to work only with proper ventilation.

In-home and commercial smoke detectors are often inter-connected so that if one alarm goes off in a building, they all do. They are also wired to contact the fire department.

Stay safe, Missoula.