start in your home and increase your chances of safely escaping if one does start. To have an effective fire safety program:
a. Install smoke alarms properly following the instructions in this manual. Keep your units clean. Test your smoke alarm weekly and have unit repaired or replace unit when it no longer functions. As with any electronic product, smoke alarms have a limited life, and devices that don't work cannot protect you.
b. Follow safety rules and prevent hazardous situations: Use smoking materials properly; never smoke in bed.
Keep matches and cigarette lighters away from children.
Store flammable materials in proper containers and never use them near open flames or sparks.
Keep electrical appliances and cords in good working order and do not overload electrical circuits.
Keep stoves, fireplaces, chimneys, and barbecue grills grease-free and make sure they are properly installed away from combustible materials.
Keep portable heaters and open flames such as candles away from combustible materials.
Do not allow rubbish to accumulate.
Do not leave small children home alone.
c. Develop a family escape plan and practice it with your entire family, especially small children.
Draw and post a floor plan of your home and find two ways to exit from each room. There should be one way to get out of each bedroom without opening the door.
Teach children what the smoke alarm signal means, and that they must be prepared to leave the residence by themselves if necessary. Show them how to check to see if doors are hot before opening them, how to stay close to the floor and crawl if necessary, and how to use the alternate exit if the door is hot and should not be opened.
Decide on a meeting place a safe distance from your house and make sure that all your children understand that they should go and wait for you if there is a fire.
Hold fire drills at least every 6 months to make sure that everyone, even small children, know what to do to escape safely.
Know where to go to call the fire department from outside your residence.
Provide emergency equipment such as fire extinguishers and teach your family to use this equipment properly.
d. Bedroom doors should be closed while sleeping if a smoke alarm is installed in the bedroom. They act as a barrier against heat and smoke.
WHAT TO DO IF THERE IS A FIRE IN YOUR HOME If you have prepared family escape plans and practiced them with
your family, you have increased their chances of escaping safely. Review the following rules with your children when you have fire drills so everyone will remember them in a real fire emergency. If the alarm should sound:
a. Don't panic; stay calm. Your safe escape may depend on thinking clearly and remembering what you have practiced.
b. Get out of the house following a planned escape route as quickly as possible. Do not stop to collect anything or to get dressed.
c. Open doors carefully only after feeling to see if they are hot. Do not open a door if it is hot; use an alternate escape route.
d. Stay close to the floor; smoke and hot gases rise.
e. Cover your nose and mouth with a cloth, wet if possible, and take short, shallow breaths.
f. Keep doors and windows closed unless you open them to escape. g. Meet at your prearranged meeting place after leaving the house. h. Call the Fire Department as soon as possible from outside your
house. Give the address and your name. i. Never re-enter a burning building.
Contact your local Fire Department for more information on making your home safer from fires and about preparing your family's escape plans.
NOTICE: Current studies have shown smoke alarms may not awaken all sleeping individuals, and that it is the responsibility of individuals in the household that are capable of assisting others to provide assistance to those who may not be awakened by the alarm sound, or to those who may be incapable of safely evacuating the area unassisted.
WHAT THIS SMOKE ALARM CAN DO
This smoke alarm is designed to sense smoke entering its sensing chamber. It does not sense gas, heat (except for the H or T options), or flames.
When properly located, installed, and maintained, this smoke alarm is designed to provide early warning of developing fires at a reasonable cost. This unit monitors the air and, when it senses smoke, activates its built-in alarm horn. It can provide precious time for you and your family to escape from your residence before a fire spreads. Such an early warning, however, is possible only if the smoke alarm is located, installed, and maintained as specified in this User's Manual.
NOTICE: This smoke alarm is designed for use within single
residential living units only; that is, it should be used inside a single- family home or one apartment of a multi-family building. In a multi-family building, the device may not provide early warning for residents if it is placed outside of the residential units, such as on outside porches, in corridors, lobbies, basements, or in other apartments. In multi-family buildings, each residential unit should have smoke alarms to alert the residents of that unit. Units designed to be interconnected should be interconnected within one family residence only; otherwise, nuisance alarms will occur when a smoke alarm in another living unit is tested.
NOTICE: WHAT SMOKE ALARMS CANNOT DO Smoke alarms will not work without power. A battery must be
connected to the device to maintain proper alarm operation if device AC power supply is cut off by an electrical fire, an open fuse or circuit breaker, or for any other reason. In the event of AC power failure, the battery will supply power for a minimum of 24 hours.
Smoke alarms may not sense fire that starts where smoke cannot reach the devices such as in chimneys, in walls, on roofs, or on the other side of closed doors. If bedroom doors are usually closed at night, smoke alarms should be placed in each bedroom as well as in the common hallway between them.
Smoke alarms also may not sense a fire on another level of a residence or building. For example, a second-floor device may not sense a first-floor or basement fire. Therefore, smoke alarms should be placed on every level of a residence or building.
The horn in your smoke alarm meets or exceeds current audibility requirements of ANSI/UL 217. However, if the smoke alarm is located outside a bedroom, it may not wake up a sound sleeper, especially if the bedroom door is closed or only partly open. If the smoke alarm is located on a different level of the residence than the bedroom, it is even less likely to awaken people sleeping in the bedroom. In such cases, the National Fire Protection Association recommends that smoke alarms be interconnected so that a unit on any level of the residence will sound an alarm loud enough to awaken sleepers in closed bedrooms. This can be done by employing a systematic approach by interconnecting smoke alarms together, or by using radio frequency transmitters and receivers.
All types of smoke alarm sensors have limitations. No type of device can sense every kind of fire every time. In general, smoke alarms may not always warn you about fires caused by violent explosions, escaping gas, improper storage of
flammable materials, or arson.
NOTICE: This smoke alarm is not designed to replace special- purpose fire detection and smoke alarm systems necessary to protect persons and property in non-residential buildings such as warehouses, or other large industrial or commercial buildings. It alone is not a suitable substitute for complete fire-detection systems designed to protect individuals in hotels and motels, dormitories, hospitals, or other health and supervisory care and retirement homes. Please refer to NFPA 101,The Life Safety Code, and NFPA 72 for smoke alarm requirements for fire protection in buildings not defined as "households."
Installing smoke alarms may make you eligible for lower insurance rates, but smoke alarms are not a substitute for insurance. Home owners and renters should continue to insure their lives and property.
PLACEMENT OF SMOKE ALARMS
THIS EQUIPMENT SHOULD BE INSTALLED IN
ACCORDANCE WITH THE NATIONAL FIRE PROTECTION ASSOCIATION'S STANDARD 72 (National Fire Protection Association, Batterymarch Park, Quincy, MA 02269).
For your information, the National Fire Protection Association's Standard 72, reads as follows:
NFPA 72, 2010 Edition, Chapter 29, Section 29.5.1.1 Where required by applicable laws, codes or standards for a specific type of occupancy, approved single and multiple-station smoke alarms shall be installed as follows:
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