Home Safety

Home Safety

Three separate hazards need three different detectors and they are not interchangeable. Smoke alarms go on the ceiling of every level, with the hallway and landing the priority positions because that is the escape route. Optical smoke alarms respond better to slow smouldering fires, which is the type most house fires start as. Heat alarms belong in kitchens and garages, where a smoke alarm will be triggered constantly by cooking fumes, steam and dust until someone takes the battery out, which is the worst outcome of all. Carbon monoxide is odourless and colourless, so an alarm is the only way it will ever be detected, and one belongs near any boiler, stove, open fire or gas appliance following the positioning guidance supplied with the unit. Battery type matters more than it appears: a 10 year sealed battery unit needs no changes across its working life, which removes the single most common reason alarms fail, while mains hard wired alarms are wired into the house circuit and are the standard for new installations. Alarms have an expiry date printed on them and should be replaced at it regardless of whether they still test. On the response side, a fire blanket belongs in the kitchen within reach of the cooker but never above it, because reaching over a fire to get it defeats the purpose.

Kidde is the widest range, covering optical smoke alarms in battery form including a 10 year sealed battery photoelectric model, a 10 year sealed battery carbon monoxide alarm, a 5CO carbon monoxide alarm with a 7 year battery, and the COSAC essential pack combining a carbon monoxide and smoke alarm. Safeline supplies a three pack pairing a fire blanket, extinguisher and smoke alarm, and Proplus a home fire safety kit with an extinguisher and blanket together, plus a 1 metre by 1 metre fire blanket and a 1kg multi purpose extinguisher. Evolec covers mains hard wired smoke alarms and Daewoo a battery optical alarm, with FireHawk supplying a heat alarm with a 10 year battery. SCAN makes a 40 piece general purpose first aid kit and a larger kit rated for 1 to 25 people, Blackspur a 1 metre fire blanket, and Benross a cable wire tidy kit, alongside convex roadside safety mirrors at 12 inch and 24 inch for blind exits and driveways.