freaked out - smoke detectors did not go off in small fire

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do not mess with fire detectors. Personally i would double up with battery operated smoke detectors right next to the old ones.

The self described foreigner from the 3rd world needs to get a clue.

I'd do this and also call the fire department. OP, really, don't worry that calling the fire department will bother them. Trust me, they LOVE to help people prevent fires. What they do is a calling. They welcome the opportunity to help make you and your family safer.

To 15:39: Do you ever watch the local news? People's houses burn down almost every damn day. Please, protect yourself and your family. Please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, I grew up without fire alarms in another country and I never heard of a house fire.

We use propane gas burning stoves, we ask kids learn to change the container for our moms, learn to test it for leakage, so there's a lot of room for error IMO.


I don't think it's a big deal what happened in your home.

Not a big deal? Try telling that to the people who've had house fires, or to the family whose 6 and 3 year old just died in a fire in Myersville.

Fires can get big fast, OP has every right to worry. I agree with the the PPs to get the inspected and/or get backups in case.

[Anonymous]

Call the manufacturer with the model number and tell them what went down.

[Anonymous]

Oh my gosh - I'd be really concerned with that level of smoke and lack of alarm. It sounds truly like they aren't working. The only other option I can think of is I was somewhere recently that had alarms that were "heat sensing" instead of smoke sensing. I wonder if your's might sense heat instead of smoke? Could you hold a match up to the smoke detector to test it? You could alert your alarm company in advance of doing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have both hardwired and battery-only detectors. The battery ones go off any time there's smoke in the house (cooking, fireplace). The wired one located right above the stove has NEVER gone off. It tests fine when you press the "test" button, but it has never gone off in a real smoke situation. I'm not sure it really works. I trust the battery ones, and added two near the kitchen as back up.

Very weird one was installed above the stove. It should not be there, but rather somewhere else on the same floor. smoke from cooking often sets off alarms. Maybe a previous owner disabled it.

[Anonymous]

This is timely b/c we moved recently and we have about a 100 smoke detectors, due to me wanting to make sure we have full coverage.

After move-in, our neighbor had a house fire, and the only way they were alerted was the smoke detectors had a link to their alarm company.

Naturally this prompted me to spend $300 in alarm company related smoke detectors to augment our colection of ionic, photoelectric, hardwired and battery operated smoke detectors that are also interconnected.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone. I appreciate it. We do have back up smoke detectors - I only bought two of them though - one for the top floor just outside our sleeping area and another at the first level (two level home). We also have a dual carbon monoxide smoke detector in our living room. So it's not enough long-term but I do have SOME backup, but this is keeping me up at night otherwise. But, I want the hard wired ones to be working properly, because those are the ones where if a smoke detector goes off downstairs, they all go off, and you know where the fire is. The fire department is such a great call. I will be calling tomorrow morning.

Thanks all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is timely b/c we moved recently and we have about a 100 smoke detectors, due to me wanting to make sure we have full coverage.

After move-in, our neighbor had a house fire, and the only way they were alerted was the smoke detectors had a link to their alarm company.

Naturally this prompted me to spend $300 in alarm company related smoke detectors to augment our colection of ionic, photoelectric, hardwired and battery operated smoke detectors that are also interconnected.

OP here - that's something others have mentioned. I think we may spring for the same thing. We have guardian and like them for our burglar alarm, but we never had them hook up a fire system. We may do that, also. PP, how much extra does the actual monitoring run you?

[Anonymous]

Instead of changing out all the wired ones, what about just getting one or two new non-hard wired ones for each floor? We put a new one just outside the kitchen - the kind that can sense super-high heat and smoke (the only bad thing is that it goes off whenever i'm broiling and something is super hot in the oven) - but i appreciate that its kind of an early-warning system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do not mess with fire detectors. Personally i would double up with battery operated smoke detectors right next to the old ones.

The self described foreigner from the 3rd world needs to get a clue.

Yep, battery-operated ones are inexpensive and easy to put up. You could use command strips to put them up if you don't want to mess around with screws. If you buy them and stick them up, your husband can just live with it. The one near our kitchen goes off any time there's a little smoke from broiling steak, etc. which is reassuring to me.

[Anonymous]

NP here. We have smoke detetector monitoring from Brinks (okay, whoever is now Brinks). There is no additional monthly fee for the detector - it was a one-time fee for the device. The device is just considered an extra "sensor" that they monitor. Does that make sense? The billing approach may differ for Guardian, but I would doubt it.

I insisted we get the smoke detector monitoring b/c a college friend had her house burn down when she was in high school... Christmas tree failure.

[Anonymous]

Also, how old are your smoke detectors? They should be replaced every 10 years.

[Anonymous]

Hello all, OP here with an update.

We had the fire department out yesterday; something I highly recommend doing even if you DON'T think you have a smoke detector problem. They came out, brought the truck (my little boy went outside and sat in it after the inspection because they weren't busy and because he insisted on wearing his fireman jammies all day when they were coming - bonus!). More importantly, they walked through our house and made observations, asked questions, and left behind their inspection sheet. They were extremely reassuring while making realistic recommendations of what we could be doing better and more safely. For example, their checksheet asked if we unplug all small appliances when not in use, we said no, and the firemen said "yeah, we don't either." But they DID impress upon us that it is really important to get our furnace inspected once a year by a qualified HVAC specialist, which we thought we only had to do every five years or so. They were also very flattering; the fact that we had two fire extinguishers (one in basement and one in kitchen) made them happy and so did the fact that we have three carbon monoxide detectors in the house.

They DID feel that our smoke detectors were working perfectly. We have really high ceilings and our smoke detectors are near the top, and they said that might have caused the delay. However, they said they also would have felt nervous as well. They said that while they're not TOO high, that might have been part of the issue. They actually gave us a 10 year, no-need-to-change battery smoke detector for the house, which is part of their program. They also encouraged us, if we could afford it they said, to get the monitoring from our alarm company, which was great to hear in front of my husband, who doesn't enjoy spending money.

In all, I thought it was extremely valuable for a number of reasons, not just the smoke detectors issue.

For PP who asked how old our smoke detectors are, they're about 5.5 years old now.

Thanks everyone, and consider calling the fire department for a helpful home inspection - cannot thank the PPs enough for that recommendation.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the update! Glad it was a good experience for you - and for the little guy, too.

I've been on a couple of tours of our fire station with my DCs. It's usually easy to arrange for small groups. I found them VERY valuable because one fireman described their full uniform while another put it on piece by piece. In the end, a fully dressed fireman looks pretty intimidating, with helmet, mask, big heavy coat, air tank, etc. It made me feel better that the kids have now seen one and know that he's not a "bad scary guy" but a rescuer with all the right equipment.

I can tell your little guy is young, but make sure that you & your husband have a "fire action" plan - that is, where you'd meet, how to decide who gets the kids(s), etc. in the event of a fire. And review that plan every so often. Which reminds me... that we need to review our own plan.

Thanks again for sharing!

[Anonymous]

OP, I was just going to post that you said they were "near the ceiling." They are probably too high. Smoke billows up only so high...then doesn't billow any more.