Home fires are more prevalent during the winter season – cooking and alternative heating source problems, combined with holiday light malfunctions can make fire safety an important matter this time of year. Here are some quick facts from the National Fire Protection Association from 2011:
> 2520 fire deaths occurred in the home
> 13,910 fire injuries occurred in the home (that’s one every 38 minutes!)
> Home fires cost home owners $6.9 billion
Compound the general fire safety issue with a vision, hearing, mobility, or aging challenge and you can appreciate our concern with helping you be safe in your home over the holiday season! Whatever your particular situation may be, reflect on your ability to escape a fire if it starts in your home. Every household needs to have a clearly understood AND practiced escape plan. Factor your particular needs into the arrangements you make when preparing your escape plan. But before even worrying about evacuating your home you’ll need to have sufficient notification of a pending fire hazard – for individuals with hearing impairments, a specialized smoke alarm is an absolute necessity.
Depending on your level of hearing loss the two alarms below are representative of many that are readily available from vendors like Harris Communications and are easy to install and maintain:
The Gentex 710 LS wall mount smoke alarm is a single station smoke alarm that provides both an audible alert and a strobe light signal and plugs into a wall outlet, thereby eliminating the need to have an electrician hook up the unit.
The Bellman Safe Fire Alerting Solution is a complete, ready-to-use home fire alerting system that alerts you through the bed shaker and audible alarm clock in the event of a fire. The Safe system includes a smoke detector, alarm clock and bed shaker.
For those caring for someone with dementia, the KidSmart Vocal smoke alarm detector is an alerting device that can deliver a personalized alarm message pre-recorded by a familiar voice. Having a re-assuring care-giver recite the escape plan in simple steps can reinforce action that has been previously practiced.
Be warm, be safe, and enjoy the upcoming holiday season!