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(d) Agree on an outside meeting place.
(e) Conduct fire drills at least twice a year.
(f) Be sure each member of the family is familiar with the
smoke alarm so they can react properly.
If the alarm should sound:
1. Never waste time dressing or gathering valuables. Follow
the escape route and leave the house immediately.
2. Check bedroom doors before opening. If the door is hot or
smoke is leaking in around the edges-DO NOT OPEN-use
the alternate escape route.
3. If there is smoke in the escape route-keep close to the floor
and take short breaths. If possible, cover your nose and
mouth with a wet cloth.
4. Do not use your own telephone-call the Fire Department
from your neighbor's house.
5. Once out, do not re-enter your house, but proceed to your
prearranged meeting place.
WHAT ELSE YOU CAN DO TO MAKE
YOUR FAMILY SAFE FROM FIRES
Putting up smoke alarms is just the first step in protecting
your family from fires. You also must reduce the chances that
fires will 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 smoke alarms clean. Test
your alarm weekly and repair or replace it when it no
longer functions. As with any electronic product, alarms
have a limited life, and alarms 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.
c. Develop a family escape plan and practice it with your
entire family, especially small children.
• Draw 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.
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:
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.
WHAT THIS SMOKE ALARM CAN DO
This 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 alarm 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 alarm is located,
installed, and maintained as specified in this User's Manual.
NOTE: 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 alarm 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 alarms to alert the residents
of that unit. Alarms designed to be interconnected should be
interconnected within one family residence only; otherwise,
nuisance alarms will occur when an alarm in another living
unit is tested.
IMPORTANT NOTE: WHAT SMOKE
ALARMS CANNOT DO
Smoke alarms will not work without power.
Battery-operated alarms will not work without batteries, with
dead batteries, or if the batteries are not installed properly.
AC powered alarms will not work if their AC power supply is
cut off by an electrical fire, an open fuse or circuit breaker, or
for any other reason. If you are concerned about the reliability
of either the batteries or your AC power supply for any of the
above reasons, you should install both battery and AC
powered alarms for maximum safety.
Smoke alarms may not sense fire that starts where
smoke cannot reach the alarms such as in chimneys, in
walls, on roofs, or on the other side of closed doors. If
bedroom doors are usually closed at night, 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
alarm may not sense a first-floor or basement fire. Therefore,
alarms should be placed on every level of a residence or
building.
The horn in your alarm meets or exceeds current audibility
requirements of Underwriters Laboratories. However, if the
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 alarm is located on a different level of
the residence than the bedroom, it is even less likely to wake
Pg. 7-2
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