Protect your family with smoke, CO alarms

Jan. 20, 2014, is a day I will never forget. On that day in Pennfield, New York, a fire department was dispatched to a mobile home park for a trailer on file with several people entrapped. After the fire was out, three people were dead and a community was forever changed. Investigation by the fire department determined that an 8-year-old boy named Tyler Doohan was awakened from his sleep in a living room chair by the commotion of his home filling with smoke and flames in the hallway. The family had practiced exit drills, and he ran to every bedroom in the house and woke up everybody to warn them of the fire. He grabbed the hands of all of his younger siblings and they all collected together and he led them all outside. When he made it to the gathering place with his younger siblings still in hand, he realized that his grandfather and disabled uncle had not made it out yet. With his cousin behind him, Tyler ran back in to find his missing family. The fire overwhelmed them, and his cousin was able to escape through an open window, but when he reached in to pull little Tyler out with him, he wasn’t there.

Instead, Tyler had pushed through the heat and blinding smoke to find his family. He was found with his grandfather, his hands outstretched toward him and a window directly above them. According to the Pennfield Fire Chief, Tyler appeared to have been trying to lift his grandfather through a window to safety when he succumbed to the smoke and fire. The home was not equipped with a smoke alarm. Had it not been for Tyler, the entire family would certainly have perished.

Many fire departments nationwide have added his name to their rosters on Jan. 24 in memoriam. I will forever honor this little hero every year with a reminder: get a smoke alarm, get it installed, and maintain it properly. I do this because I want to do anything I can so that we don’t have any more little hero’s sacrifices.

In 2013, there were 1,276 fires in Alaska, which includes 931 fires in one- or two-family homes. Of these homes, only one-quarter were known to have had working smoke alarms. Although easily purchased at any mercantile or hardware store and most large retailers, it turns out that an alarming number of homes do not have working smoke alarms.

According to data from the state of Alaska Fire Marshal’s Office in a report titled “Fire in Alaska 2013,” more than three quarters of alarms that are installed in a home but failed to activate were because they did not have batteries in them or had dead batteries. The remaining failures ranged from improper installation, lack of maintenance, and power failure.

In 2013, the 16 Alaskans who died in a house fire died in 14 separate fires. Of those 14 structure fires, only one half of them had smoke alarms and, of those, only 3 smoke alarms were operational. That’s 11 fires in which the occupant or occupants were not provided an opportunity for early notification of a fire.

The three deaths in homes with working smoke alarms speak volumes to the fact that prevention is not enough on its own. Make a plan with everyone in your home on what to do in the case of a fire. Know where to meet, know what to do, and know what not to do. Review those Exit Drills in the Home — or EDITH — worksheets that your school-aged children brought home during Fire Prevention Week in October, and practice them again.

Life and family are the most important things to most people, but many people unknowingly place their lives in preventable danger every day. If you need assistance with what type or how many smoke alarms to purchase, contact your local fire department. Many local fire departments have supplies of alarms that they can install for free into your homes, or fresh batteries to replace expired or dead ones. Most manufacturers now make alarms with 10-year batteries, eliminating the twice-yearly battery change that is very often forgotten. It also prevents a battery from being removed and forgotten to be re-installed.

Not to be overlooked as you plan your purchase and installation of smoke alarms are carbon monoxide alarms. Also called CO alarms, these will warn occupants of the odorless and lethal toxin that killed a young mother in Meadow Lakes and nearly killed her husband and their 4-year-old daughter in their home in November 2013. Carbon monoxide alarms are readily available at the stores on the same shelves as smoke alarms.

Not every disaster or emergency is foreseeable or preventable, but many are. By ensuring your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are in working order, you are taking what, in my opinion, is the single most important step to saving your family and your memories.

Early notification means early escape and early notification of 9-1-1.

Captain Christian M. Hartley is a second-generation emergency responder with 15 years of experience. He is the Training Officer with Houston Fire Department. He can be reached at chartley@houston-ak.gov with any fire or injury prevention question or comment.