Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are essential safety devices that everyone should have in their homes. These alarms can provide an early warning about dangers like fires or carbon monoxide, which is a harmful gas you can’t see or smell.
Smoke Alarms
According to the Oregon State Fire Marshal, 80% of home fire deaths in Oregon happen in homes where working smoke alarms are not present. Working smoke alarms provide early warning, giving you more time to escape, and cut the risk of dying in a home fire in half. Oregon Law requires all homes being sold or rented to have working smoke alarms.
Carbon Monoxide (CO) Detectors
Carbon monoxide (CO) is known as the invisible killer because it’s a gas you can’t see or smell. It’s created when fuels (such as gasoline, wood, coal, natural gas, propane, oil, and methane) don’t burn completely. In the home, heating and cooking equipment that burn fuel can be sources of carbon monoxide. Oregon Law requires all homes being sold or rented to have working carbon monoxide alarms if they have something that can make carbon monoxide (like a heater, fireplace, or furnace), were built after 2011, or had major renovations done with a permit.
Do you have a plan for when the alarms sound?
Make sure your family has a plan for evacuating your home if your smoke or carbon monoxide alarms sound. One of the best ways to prepare your family is to practice escape drills in the home.
Follow these easy steps to ensure everyone knows how to get out safely:
- Draw a floor plan of your home.
- Make an escape plan.
- Practice your plan.
- Teach young kids what to do if a fire breaks out in the home, like how to feel the door with the back of their hand to check if it’s hot, and how to stay low to the ground where the air is cleaner and easier to breathe.
- Have a backup plan in case you can’t get out. Close the door to keep the fire away, block cracks with towels or blankets to stop smoke from coming in, and know how to signal for help so firefighters can find you.
- Have a meeting place!
