No smoke alarm? There’s no excuse

When was the last time you thought about smoke detectors? Chances are, it was something along the lines of you forgot dinner was in the oven, smoke filled the room and the darn thing went off. So, you did what most people do and pulled the battery. Right?

Ninety nine times out of 100 this is the only way we notice our smoke alarms. They just sit there, year after year, slowly draining their 9-volt batteries and now and again driving you batty when you’re already upset because dinner is ruined.

Why do we put up with this thing that won’t let us make one mistake with the oven before filling our homes with the ear-piercing sound of a high-pitched siren?

We got a good reminder of the value of smoke detectors this week.

A fire in the Knik-Fairview area of Wasilla left a couple displaced, relying on the Red Cross for overnight accommodations. The state Fire Marshal’s Office took notice of the blaze for two reasons. First, it appears to have started with space heaters used as a permanent heat source. Second, the couple inside was asleep at the time. Smoke alarms woke them up and they got out safely.

This is why we put up with those low-battery chirps and false alarms. It’s why we feed our smoke alarms a steady diet of 9-volt batteries. We want to be sure that when we finally need to rely on them, our smoke alarms are ready and able to give us the extra seconds we need to escape and call for help.

One firefighter described Tuesday’s fire as a “textbook operation” with fire damage contained to one room, though other parts of the home suffered heat and smoke damage.

But if the smoke alarms hadn’t sounded, this could be an entirely different story. Even if the couple had gotten out of the home safely, responders would have arrived later and the fire would have been allowed to burn longer.

The Valley is an interesting place where smoke alarms are concerned, though.

Many of our neighbors have either recently built their homes or are in the process of building them. A lot of people here build out-of-pocket, finishing this room or that room when they have the money. Smoke alarms aren’t really top on the list of concerns when a person is hanging Sheetrock or laying tile. They’re the sorts of things you’ll put in later, maybe after you’ve lived in the place a while.

On the other side of the spectrum, older homes often have detectors that aren’t functional and haven’t been for years. Homeowners might not even know it. Or maybe a false alarm prompted a person to take them all down, with the idea they’d be replaced later.

Fire is just as much a danger in either of these hypothetical situations as it is in any other home.

But the Valley is also a place, at least right now, where no one really has a good excuse for not having smoke alarms. If you don’t have them and you want them, Central Mat-Su, Willow and Houston fire departments have you covered. They don’t even care if you live in their service areas or not. They’ll find a way to get you free smoke alarms and they’ll put them up in the right spots for you to boot.

So if you’re reading this and your home lacks smoke alarms, we urge you to call the fire department.

Those numbers are: Houston 892-6457, Central 373-8830, Willow 495-6728.

Get this done now. It could save your life.