Another fatal multi victim house fire in Richmond metro area. Sunday a house fire in South Richmond claimed the life of a mother and two young children. This house had NO working smoke detectors. Please take steps to protect yourself and your family. This was after another multi victim fatal fire in Chesterfield. In total in Virginia already this year there have been at least 40 fire deaths in residential buildings.
Please think about these fire safety tips.
1) working smoke detectors for each floor minimum
2) that everyone in the home knows multiple ways out of the home and a safe place to meet to do a headcount (neighbors mailbox)
3) practice practice practice this plan whether your a family with kids or a bunch or roommates make sure everyone knows what the smoke
Alarms sound like and practice getting out to your meeting spot
4) get a home fire extinguisher for the kitchen and/or garage know how to use said item
5) close all doors at night while you sleep. This will limit smoke and heat movement in a home during a fire
6) get a landline (I know I know) but when it's 2:30am your smoke alarm goes off and your hallway is filled with pitch black smoke trying to stay calm enough to provide accurate address and location information To dispatch can be tough. With a landline you don't even need to talk for them to know where you are. So when you live on Flynn rd in chesterfield not Flynn dr in Richmond the units can get their faster.
If you can't afford or install a smoke alarm call your local fire department they will be happy to help.
Comments
#4 ... and check expiration date yearly, they do go bad
This is a good reminder I need to buy a new fire extinguisher, thanks! Do you recommend the rechargeable ones?
Honestly I've never really studied up on that. Our inspections were commercial focused and I also did arson investigator assistance. Honestly if we could just get people to have working smoke alarms we could cut in half the number of fire deaths in the US each year.
Here's some basic information we provide when asked that question.
Most people protect the single biggest investment they make with the cheapest fire extinguisher available...
If new construction or substantial renovation, consider a residential sprinkler system (NFPA Residential Sprinkler Info).
Install smoke alarms (NFPA Guidance here).
Smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, etc. should all be used in accordance with their UL listing.
The NFPA doesn't provide specific guidelines for residential extinguishers, but here are a few pointers:
Kitchen fires, anyone? If you've never seen this - check it out.
This man will be able to help more with the fine details. He is a wealth of knowledge and experience.
Awesome, thank you!
When we built our house 4 years ago, I was interested in a residential sprinkler system. Builder talked about insurance cost reductions. But, the system would have added $30,000 to my build, and the savings was less than $100 a year for insurance.
Since that 30K would have pushed us into jumbo mortgage territory, it was tough to justify and we went without.
Thats a tough sell, despite the potential benefit.
There is no way in hell the added cost should be that high. These builders just don't want to do it. They have even fought against fire codes for commercial and multi family dwellings for decades.
That's definitely way too much for the cost. They probably don't have a relationship with anyone certified to install and test a system, so they priced you out of the install. It should be between about $1.25 and $1.75 per square foot of your home for new construction sprinkler install. Unless your home was 20,000 square feet, that was way too much.
Edit: Read the study slightly wrong, that's the cost to the builder. Add 15%-20% to that cost per square foot and that would be about the cost you should pay.
I get it that the cost is overblown by the builder. They inflate any add ons significantly. Its not that they don't want to do it, but that the add-ons are where they make their money. Case in point - I wanted radiant heating in my basement floor. Builder quoted $16k for the installation of the tubes in the floor, plus the boiler system. I passed. They then came back with $6k to put the pipes in the floor during the pour, and I could install the boiler later. Their $10k for the boiler install turned into $3,500 when I contracted it myself - with the same contractor they use.
I don't think its an unwillingness to do the install, its the desire to make a huge profit on anything that is an add on to their standard build. My builder pushed anything they could to drive the price up - the sprinkler system was just one of the options.
$6,000 for the pex, manifold, and labor to install is a bunch of profit. Hope that included the foam insulation under the slab. I did my basement myself. Less than $800 in the manifolds and pex cost.
The builder has their profit, and the sub that did the pour has theirs. 2500 sq ft basement. Its not like I was going to back after the build was complete and pour the basement slab all over again.
The Homebuilders Association in NC is a very strong lobby and have fought tooth and nail to prevent sprinkler systems from being even mentioned when it comes to residential uses, even in our 20 bedroom vacation "houses" here in the Outer Banks
Depends if there is additional work needed to the main in the street. We have done sprinkler systems where the connection in the street wasn't capable of handling the extra water requirements and needed an upgrade.
For a house? What water system can't handle 30 gpm? That's some poor quality systems.
Thanks Fireman #1 each floor is a minimum... new building codes require detectors in each bedroom
Also at least one CO detector on each floor.
I think a flammable gas detector near a gas furnace too, at least in my locale.
I understand the desire to have doors closed from a fire standpoint. But from a ventilation standpoint, it doesn't work so well. Most houses don't adequately ventilate their rooms. Especially as energy codes become more restrictive (remember that whole sick building thing? We are working on that again.) I'm not seeing residential contractors make the necessary ventilation upgrades to deal with the tighter buildings. My HVAC contractor looked at me like I had two heads when I started asking for specific pieces in my mechanical system.
Ultimately, fire risk is far lower than health issues based on environment. Each move taken to limit one thing should weigh other consequences.
True, and as foam insulation starts getting more and more prevalent, houses get tighter and tighter. When you foam a house, the HVAC needs a fresh air exchanger to help the house breathe.
I can't speak to environmental concerns. But I can tell you from direct experience your door to your bedroom being shut from 10pm-6am can have A direct impact on if you and your kids survive a house fire.
Thanks for the PSA HF.
Going to give the kids a lesson today!
Thanks for this.
Just moved into a new house and we came back after an afternoon of running errands. We found that our 3 year-old had turned her giraffe nightlight (plugs directly into receptacle) on and covered it with a little blanket to keep it warm. Luckily, no harm done, but blanket was very warm/hot. Scary stuff!
Lesson 1) don't forget to talk about fire hazards with your kids.
Lesson 2) use safer night lights
I recommend something like this. It's battery operated, so it won't get too hot, and kid can push a button to turn it back on after it times out. Plus, the projection of stars and constellations on the ceiling is pretty neat.
https://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Twilight-Turtle-Nightlight-Projector/dp/B00...
Am friends with the family in the Flynn Road fire- it was horrific and gut wrenching ; that and Plus my son in law is a Henrico County firefighter; definitely prompted me to get new and up to date smoke/CO detectors in my own home.
A follow up-
Be sure to change the batteries on a regular schedule. Alternatively you can wait until they're nearly dead and it starts beeping at 4:00am, your wife and dog freak out and you get to go to Lowe's at 6:00 to buy the ladder you need to reach it.
I used a Little Giant in my previous pest control and home inspector jobs and they're so damn versatile and high quality, I can't use anything else. Yeah, they are freaking expensive, but I can keep my 25' ladder I use to get on my roof in a corner of the garage instead of outside against the wall or fence.
Why do they always beep in the middle of the night?
(Which reminds me, I just took the batteries out, and need to get batteries to replace them. They still work, as they're tied into the house power and the green light is lit, but wouldn't work in a power outage, I guess.)
Question: Is that what the battery backup is for, just in case there's a fire when the power is out? Given that my power almost NEVER goes out (underground line, very close to the substation, and wife works for the power company), do I really NEED to replace the batteries?
Unless you have an electrical fire that cuts their power supply right? It's a safety backup because it's the best residential fire life protection device known to man in mass use with ease of use. You install it change the batteries yearly make sure it's not covered in dust and cobwebs and your golden.
I have nothing else to say but thanks for creating this post. If this reminder only helps one person with preventing a house fire, it's worth it!
I would never do it but I can see why so many people unplug their smoke detectors after living in my current house.
We have 3 smoke detectors within 5 feet of each other. All are within 10 feet of my gas range. If I think about cast iron they go off, "what's that you preheated the oven? FIRE"
Last week it went off at 1am for no reason. This morning the battery chirp started at 3AM. The placement of these things needs to be more of a consideration when building houses.
To add usefulness to this post since I just learned this: Periodically clean around your detectors. I believe mine went off because of accumulated dust in the housing mount. Just twist it, drop it, and dust there when you change out your HVAC filters)
Try replacing yours with a different type of detector. Some sense light being blocked by smoke, some sense ionized particles. A different one might work better for your situation and give you less false alarms: nerdalert
also, don't do this:
this is what came up when i searched for "prevent fire"
or this....
Edit: Removed since it was playing the audio when people opened the thread. My bad.
It took me quite a bit of time to realize that this clip automatically plays with audio when I opened this thread. Peacock WTH
I remember you mentioning closing bedroom doors awhile back and it stuck with me. I gave up harping on my wife about the thermostat and started nagging her and my kid about keeping doors closed.
Busy department I worked with in Ohio made a save out of fully involved house. Little kid hiding in his bathroom, his bedroom door was closed. The hallway outside his room was burned down to the studs, his door had just started to melt/burn when they pulled him out of his bathroom window. Kid survived. His uncle or older cousin who was on opposite side of house with his door open didn't even manage to get out bed and tragically died.
Slightly relevant, but be sure to check and clean dryer vents! It was easier than I expected, and got a ton of lint/debris out of the tube that connects from the back of the dryer to the exhaust.
I have this brush on a flexible 12' rod that attaches to a drill for a good cleaning on the tubing. Very cheap and easy to use.
Victims of one of the recent fires (the one that killed almost the entire family in Chesterfield a couple months back) are currently staying in my neighborhood.
Our smoke detectors in our neighborhood are linked to the electrical power. If the power goes out, they all start going off if the batteries are dead. This happened during the ice storm back in April. Houses in our hood are about 15 years old. The "new" side is about 10ish. All of them are setup this way.
Yes batteries should be changed yearly no matter if your detector has been using them or not.
@Hokie Fireman, I bought some fire extinguishers when I first moved into this house ~ 15 years ago and haven't ever tested them or nothin. They are probably the cheapo ones you mentioned earlier, and it sounds like I should refresh them. Are they recyclable? Is there a best way to dispose of them?
Also two things:
1) That episode of... Diffrent Strokes (?) ... when the model rocket set fire to the apartment haunted my dreams for a long time, and...
2) I recall the firefolks coming to my elementary school and talking about fire safety with us and I was scared shitless for like months on end that everything was going to set fire to everything else all the time. My mom went as far as to complain to the elementary school about it because my sister had had the same lesson a few years earlier and she also was scared shitless for months afterwards. The firefighters that came were totally cool but damn if it didn't scare the bejeezus out of us.
I started a kitchen fire about 10 years ago while unpacking from a move. Couple things I remember:
1. I hate glass top stoves. I accidentally bumped into the knob (stupid galley kitchen) and the burner caught some loose packing paper.
2. It is quick. I tried reacting, but had no nearby water source. The fridge was empty and the sink was jam packed of dirty shit I had just unpacked. In a matter of 30? or so seconds, all these flammable materials that work great for moving (paper, cardboard, etc) quickly caught on fire.
3. As I called 911 from my cell and the lady asked me for my address.... I remember saying "Crap... I don't know my address, I just moved in" I had to sprint to the street to get the full street name. Props to the fire dept, which was there sooo quick.
Got very lucky, mostly smoke damage and stuff in the kitchen.
Interistingly enough, the same row of condos caught on fire sometime last year and I think most units were destroyed. My wife still follows the Norfolk news channel and pointed to the helicopter footage saying "Isn't that the place you used to live at?"
Most residential fires especially fatal ones are the result of kitchen/food related incidents and smoking related. But your point about your address is any despite the cost I will ALWAYS have a landline and so will my kids in their home. I've listened to dispatch audio where units can't find homes and people have died while on the phone with dispatchers.
Do most 911s not have GPS tracking? The one in my area can track my cell phone when I call 911.
They can be inaccurate or misleading. For instance where I am building my house, it is closer to Happy Hollow Road than Indian Meadow, but my driveway and legal access is from Indian Meadow via a 1800' driveway. So GPS coordinates would likely direct them to Happy Hollow and would delay response probably 10 minutes if they got the wrong directions.
It doesn't matter because your phone doesn't talk to the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP, fancy name and acronym for 911 dispatch) in many places. BUT...when NextGen911 is finally implemented, which the entire state is in the process of standing up, that WILL be the case.
https://www.safety.com/calling-911/
So when calling 911 several things to keep in mind. The only guaranteed information is the tower being used to make the call. Other details like GPS take special equipment that not all 911 centers have and is not instant. It also still gives only an area location, so apartment or condo don't know which unit. In some places 911 calls from cell phones are sent first to state police/highway patrol dispatch which then will have to transfer your call. Landlines are the only guaranteed way to pick up a phone dial 911 and out the phone down and still get an emergency response.
Do VOIP "landlines" (like Ooma or Comcast) have the same benefits as a "traditional" landline?
I know with Ooma, you need to register your device's physical address with them when you set up the account (or move). I believe this is supposed to route you to the proper PSAP, but as with most things your mileage may vary depending on where you live - whether they have basic 911 vs E911 for example.
I would imagine most VOIP providers require this type of registration.
I worked NG9-1-1 requirements development over a decade ago. They've come a long way but there is still a long way to go.
Given the wide range in prices for battery powered smoke detectors and realizing that more expensive doesn't always mean better (but sometimes does)...can any of the experts recommend what the better battery smoke detectors on the market are?
Can't speak to device quality. I would stick with well known brands.
Good batteries are the way to go though. Don't get regular name brand. Get the long life/professional/whatever they call it. Like ones you'd use on a safe with a keypad. They last much longer.
I can tell you from someone that has installed and replaced hundreds of them, it doesn't really matter. All photoelectric smoke detectors have nearly the same circuitry and work the same way. Battery powered or hardwired really is unimportant, they just need to work when there is a fire. Having them tied together is a plus because it easily alerts every other unit in the house, but overall the important thing to remember is no more than 10 years on a residential. After 10 years the Americium inside breaks down to a point that it is not as reliable and makes detector less effective.