Hi, I'm Kristen Tinsley with the Seattle Fire Department, and today
I want to talk with you about one of the best ways
that you can keep you and your family safe from fires
and that's installing smoke alarms and making sure that they're working correctly.
So as you can see here, we've got a smoke alarm up on the wall in the house
that we're in today.
It's really important that with smoke alarms that you have one
installed in every bedroom, in your house, on every floor of your house
and in the hallways, right outside sleeping areas.
Smoke is the leading cause of death in house fires and smoke is incredibly toxic.
So they're very important for alerting your family members
if they need to escape the home in case of a fire.
Now, smoke alarms for testing, they should be tested every month.
And the way to do this is to press the button on the smoke alarm,
which I'm going to demonstrate now.
Wait for it to chirp
just like that and now we know that the smoke alarm is working correctly.
Now, the batteries and smoke alarms should often be changed out twice
annually, and a good day to remember this is during daylight savings times.
Sometimes smoke alarms will allow lithium batteries and those last for ten years.
Smoke alarms don't last forever.
They have to be replaced about every ten years
and look at the manufacturing instructions when you get your smoke alarm.
One way to check this is to take the smoke alarm off the wall or look at it
before installing, and you can see the manufacturing date on the back.
So for this smoke alarm, it's September 29th, 2017.
So I know that it last ten years and I need to replace it in 2027.
So making sure that you have smoke alarms installed in the correct places
and that they're working properly,
it's a great way to keep you safe this holiday season.