Please Check your smoke detectors!!

Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L USM

02/01/2009 10:13:14 PM · #1

It is sad that it takes a tragic event like this to remind people but a good friend of mine lost his son last week to a fire in a basement suite he was renting due to the smoke detectors not working and worse the 4 people in the suite at the time couldn't escape the blaze due to security bars on the windows were locked. If you are up for a read below are couple reports from Local papers which some have said this was one of the most tragic fire in our city's history. :(

Hug your kids tell them OFTEN you love them, check your smoke detectors and be sure there is an escape plan in place for the entire family in case of fire.

Story 1

Story 2

-dave

karmat

Apple iPhone 7

02/01/2009 10:33:19 PM · #2

How sad.

Last Spring, one of the small, close-knit communities in our area had two fires (within just a couple of weeks) that resulted in two or three deaths of elementary school-aged children. Two of them were in the same kindergarten class.

This year, all the volunteer fire departments visited the schools and did intensive "workshops" with the little guys, and hand out smoke detectors through the school systems. One of the things they did this year, which apparently they have not done in the past, was to put on full turn-out gear, one piece at a time, and told the kids, "If you see me in your house, do not be scared, come to me." Apparently, both of the younger victims had been scared into hiding from the firemen on the scene, and they could not reach them in time. :(

Definitely tragic.

delin

Canon EOS-40D

02/01/2009 10:45:16 PM · #3

That's so sad. Please add CO detectors also. As a professional firefighter of 17 years you see so many avoidable tragedies. 7 people have died here recently from carbon monoxide poisoning. I can't think of any bigger waste than stories like these. Most deaths are traceable to the victim, but these aren't. No reason someone should die this way. Stay safe.

K3Master

Pentax K-3

Pentax D-FA* 70-200mm f/2.8 ED DC AW

02/01/2009 10:46:21 PM · #4

Originally posted by delin:

I just got my CO detector. Sleep better now.

delin

Canon EOS-40D

02/01/2009 10:53:52 PM · #5

Originally posted by K10DGuy:

Originally posted by delin:
That's so sad. Please add CO detectors also. As a professional firefighter of 17 years you see so many avoidable tragedies. 7 people have died here recently from carbon monoxide poisoning. I can't think of any bigger waste than stories like these. Most deaths are traceable to the victim, but these aren't. No reason someone should die this way. Stay safe.

I just got my CO detector. Sleep better now.

Yeah! CO detectors have a lifespan of 3-7 years. Calculate what your lifespan is worth and replace yours accordingly!

02/02/2009 12:44:37 AM · #6

Originally posted by delin:

Originally posted by K10DGuy:

Originally posted by delin:
That's so sad. Please add CO detectors also. As a professional firefighter of 17 years you see so many avoidable tragedies. 7 people have died here recently from carbon monoxide poisoning. I can't think of any bigger waste than stories like these. Most deaths are traceable to the victim, but these aren't. No reason someone should die this way. Stay safe.

I just got my CO detector. Sleep better now.

Yeah! CO detectors have a lifespan of 3-7 years. Calculate what your lifespan is worth and replace yours accordingly!

I completely agree with the CO detectors as well, I have first hand experience on that one how quickly it can over come you without you knowing, by the time I had known something was wrong it was already too late and I had passed out...

Anyway, this one really hit home for me and just wanted to send a reminder to check your detectors and batteries in them...

02/02/2009 09:48:33 AM · #7

Bump!

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

02/02/2009 04:45:15 PM · #8

one more bump ;)

citymars

Nikon D700

02/02/2009 06:10:21 PM · #9

You are absolutely right, David.
Here is a news story about what happened this week to some good friends of mine. What the reporter doesn't tell you is (a) the daughter wakes them up nearly every night with some imagined problem, which is why Dad told her to go back to bed, and (b) they had just replaced the smoke alarm batteries in mid-December, after the old batteries had needed changing for months.

jeger

Canon EOS-5D

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

02/02/2009 06:18:27 PM · #10

And if you have security bars in the basement, make sure the key is easily accessible. We hang ours on the wall next to the window.

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ED

02/02/2009 07:14:28 PM · #11

Originally posted by jeger:

And if you have security bars in the basement, make sure the key is easily accessible. We hang ours on the wall next to the window.

A lot of the security companies here are refusing to sell the keyed bars now because of this accident here... Although they didnt have the keys someone mentioned in a state of panic trying to open the lock can be troublesome, one thing if you insist on having keyed bars is have the keys on a string attached to the wall as in the unlikely event that you drop the keys then you know where they will be and can grab them easier...

citymars, that is sad... it reminds me of a news report I seen a few months ago where they videoed a couple children sleeping and set off the smoke detectors and to everyone's surprise the kids just kept on sleeping. Then someone was prototyping a smoke detector where you record your voice on it to call the child's name and tell them to get up and when they tried that one the kids woke up right away...

Kinda scary.

BeeCee

Nikon D40

02/02/2009 09:48:42 PM · #12

Originally posted by dknourek:

[quote=jeger]
citymars, that is sad... it reminds me of a news report I seen a few months ago where they videoed a couple children sleeping and set off the smoke detectors and to everyone's surprise the kids just kept on sleeping. Then someone was prototyping a smoke detector where you record your voice on it to call the child's name and tell them to get up and when they tried that one the kids woke up right away...

Kinda scary.

Kids, because they ARE kids, trust the adults to take care of stuff, so weird noises and such most often don't wake them, as well as the fact that they're used to sleeping with household noises. The only thing a child KNOWS is meant to wake them is someone calling them. So yeah, their minds tell them, "don't worry, mommy and daddy will take care of it, and if they need me to wake they'll call me."

karmat

Apple iPhone 7

Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L USM

02/02/2009 10:00:37 PM · #13

Originally posted by BeeCee:

Originally posted by dknourek:
[quote=jeger]
citymars, that is sad... it reminds me of a news report I seen a few months ago where they videoed a couple children sleeping and set off the smoke detectors and to everyone's surprise the kids just kept on sleeping. Then someone was prototyping a smoke detector where you record your voice on it to call the child's name and tell them to get up and when they tried that one the kids woke up right away...

Kinda scary.

Kids, because they ARE kids, trust the adults to take care of stuff, so weird noises and such most often don't wake them, as well as the fact that they're used to sleeping with household noises. The only thing a child KNOWS is meant to wake them is someone calling them. So yeah, their minds tell them, "don't worry, mommy and daddy will take care of it, and if they need me to wake they'll call me."

Our smoke detectors are all connected somehow. When I set the kitchen one off (happens more often than I would like to admit), it sets of a chain reaction and within seconds, every blasted one, on both levels of the house, is going off with just slightly different pitches and different "phases." My daughter, who is the heavy sleeper, comes alive when she hears them. Of course, so do the people at the cemetery down the street, so maybe they are just really loud or something?