Focus on Fire Safety: Smoke Alarms
Smoke alarms are a very important means of preventing home fire fatalities by providing an early warning signal so you and your family can escape. According to the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), an estimated 385,500 fires occur in residential buildings every year resulting in 2,770 civilian deaths and 13,250 injuries. When a smoke alarm sounds, it is time for you to spring into action.
You can prevent tragedy simply by testing and maintaining your smoke alarms and practicing a fire escape plan. Make sure your home fire escape plan is up to date and everyone in the home knows what to do when the smoke alarm sounds. Practice your plan often.
The theme for this year's Fire Prevention Week, October 3 – 9, is Smoke Alarms: A Sound You Can Live With. Watch the video and then take the quiz below to test your knowledge about home fires and smoke alarms.
Smoke Alarm Quiz
Chief's Corner: Fire Prevention Week
Acting U.S. Fire Administrator Glenn Gaines encourages fire organizations to work on fire prevention education, engineering, and enforcement 365 days a year.
Read the Chief's Corner »
IT’S A FACT:
If your smoke alarm was installed more than 10 years ago, it needs to be replaced.
USFA encourages you to practice fire safety and to do your part to get out, before firefighters have to come in. For more information on smoke alarms, residential fire sprinklers, and escape planning, visit our Install. Inspect. Protect. fire safety campaign page.
Downloads
Focus on Fire Safety: Smoke Alarms (PDF, 301 Kb) Download and customize this poster for local use.
Focus on Fire Safety Video for Windows Media Player (16.7 Mb)
Focus on Fire Safety Video Transcript (Text File, 4 Kb)
