c. Develop a family escape plan and practice it with your
entire family, especially small children.
Draw and post a floor plan of your home and find two ways to
exit from each room. There should be one way to get out of
each bedroom without opening the door.
Teach children what the smoke alarm signal means, and that
they must be prepared to leave the residence by themselves if
necessary. Show them how to check to see if doors are hot
before opening them, how to stay close to the floor and crawl
if necessary, and how to use the alternate exit if the door is hot
and should not be opened.
Decide on a meeting place a safe distance from your house
and make sure that all your children understand that they
should go and wait for you if there is a fire.
Hold fire drills at least every 6 months to make sure that
everyone, even small children, know what to do to escape
safely.
Know where to go to call the fire department from outside your
residence.
Provide emergency equipment such as fire extinguishers and
teach your family to use this equipment properly.
d. Bedroom doors should be closed while sleeping if a smoke
alarm is installed in the bedroom.
They act as a barrier against
heat and smoke.
WHAT TO DO IF THERE IS A FIRE
IN YOUR HOME
If you have prepared family escape plans and practiced them
with your family, you have increased their chances of escaping
safely. Review the following rules with your children when you have
fire drills so everyone will remember them in a real fire emergency.
If the alarm should sound:
a. Don't panic; stay calm. Your safe escape may depend on
thinking clearly and remembering what you have practiced.
b. Get out of the house following a planned escape route as
quickly as possible. Do not stop to collect anything or to get
dressed.
c. Open doors carefully only after feeling to see if they are hot. Do
not open a door if it is hot; use an alternate escape route.
d. Stay close to the floor; smoke and hot gases rise.
e. Cover your nose and mouth with a cloth, wet if possible, and take
short, shallow breaths.
f. Keep doors and windows closed unless you open them to
escape.
g. Meet at your prearranged meeting place after leaving the house.
h. Call the Fire Department as soon as possible from outside your
house. Give the address and your name.
i. Never re-enter a burning building.
Contact your local Fire Department for more information on
making your home safer from fires and about preparing your family's
escape plans.
NOTE: Current studies have shown smoke alarms may not
awaken all sleeping individuals, and that it is the responsibility
of individuals in the household that are capable of assisting
others to provide assistance to those who may not be
awakened by the alarm sound, or to those who may be
incapable of safely evacuating the area unassisted.
WHAT THIS SMOKE ALARM CAN
DO
This smoke alarm is designed to sense smoke entering its
sensing chamber. It does not sense gas, heat, or flames.
When properly located, installed, and maintained, this smoke
alarm is designed to provide early warning of developing fires at a
reasonable cost. This smoke alarm monitors the air and, when it
senses smoke, activates its built-in alarm horn. It can provide
precious time for you and your family to escape from your residence
before a fire spreads. Such an early warning, however, is possible
only if the smoke alarm is located, installed, and maintained as
specified in this User's Manual.
NOTE: This smoke alarm is designed for use within single
residential living units only; that is, it should be used inside a single-
family home or one apartment of a multi-family building. In a multi-
family building, the alarm may not provide early warning for residents
if it is placed outside of the residential units, such as on outside
porches, in corridors, lobbies, basements, or in other apartments. In
multi-family buildings, each residential unit should have alarms to
alert the residents of that unit. Alarms designed to be interconnected
should be interconnected within one family residence only;
otherwise, nuisance alarms will occur when an alarm in another
living unit is tested.
IMPORTANT NOTE: WHAT SMOKE
ALARMS CANNOT DO
Smoke alarms will not work without power.
A battery must be
connected to the smoke alarm to maintain proper alarm operation if
AC power supply is cut off by an electrical fire, an open fuse or
circuit breaker, or for any other reason. In the event of AC power
failure, the battery will supply standby power for a minimum of 24
hours.
Smoke alarms may not sense fire that starts where smoke
cannot reach the alarms
such as in chimneys, in walls, on roofs, or
on the other side of closed doors. If bedroom doors are usually
closed at night, smoke alarms should be placed in each bedroom as
well as in the common hallway between them.
Smoke alarms also may not sense a fire on another level of
a residence or building.
For example, a second-floor smoke alarm
may not sense a first-floor or basement fire. Therefore,
smoke
alarms should be placed on every level of a residence or
building.
The horn in your smoke alarm meets or exceeds current audibility
requirements of Underwriters Laboratories. However,
if the smoke
alarm is located outside a bedroom, it may not wake up a sound
sleeper,
especially if the bedroom door is closed or only partly open.
If the smoke alarm is located on a different level of the residence
than the bedroom, it is even less likely to wake up people sleeping in
the bedroom. In such cases, the National Fire Protection
Association recommends that the smoke alarms be interconnected
so that a device on any level of the residence will sound an alarm
loud enough to awaken sleepers in closed bedrooms. This can be
done by installing a fire-detection system, by connecting smoke
alarms together, or by using radio frequency transmitters and
receivers.
All types of smoke alarm sensors have limitations. No type
of smoke alarm can sense every kind of fire every time. In
general, smoke alarms may not always warn you about fires
caused by violet explosions, escaping gas, improper storage of
flammable materials, or arson.
NOTE: This smoke alarm is not designed to replace special-
purpose fire detection and smoke alarm systems necessary to
protect persons and property in non-residential buildings such as
warehouses, or other large industrial or commercial buildings. It
alone is not a suitable substitute for complete fire-detection systems
designed to protect individuals in hotels and motels, dormitories,
hospitals, or other health and supervisory care and retirement
homes. Please refer to NFPA 101,The Life Safety Code, and NFPA
72 for smoke alarm requirements for fire protection in buildings not
defined as "households."
Installing smoke alarms may make you eligible for lower
insurance rates, but
smoke alarms are not a substitute for
insurance.
Home owners and renters should continue to insure
their lives and property.
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