Save Lives: 3 Reasons Why Smoke Detectors are Must-haves in 2021

By Mamnun Ahmed Nihal

Among many essential things people should care deeply about, fire safety seems to be overlooked. And the consequences have been being perceived vividly in some recent events. To avoid any future fire safety issues, it’s high time we took some measures, and setting smoke alarms in our houses could be the first initiative towards a safer home.

Why Take The Trouble?

Among many reasons, three of them will sum up the importance of smoke alarms,

1) Rise of fire-related hazards: Many studies show that fire-caused hazards have been increased by 20-50 percent in the last 10 years. For many reasons such as the usage of more electric-based devices in the house, the risk can keep increasing. And in the context of Bangladesh, the electric lines of even a luxury residential area are faulty. And the house wiring is always at risk of short circuit. We are always at risk of a fire issue waiting to happen.

2) Safer Home is Smarter Home: Smoke detectors will always provide you real-time protection, whether you stay at your house or not. The smartest homes will always contain safety devices as much as needed. Here we always promote smart homes, even if your home is filled with smart devices but doesn’t contain safety devices, is it really a smart home?

3) Save Lives, Reduces life risk by 50 percent: A house can be overflown with flames just within a minute of any fire trouble. With smoke detectors, you might get a solid 10-30 second warning that otherwise, you wouldn’t have gotten. ‘A stitch in time saves nine.’ And a 5-second warning can save your and your family’s life too.

Setting and Maintaining Smoke Alarms

Now that we know the importance of smoke detectors, let’s explore how we can arrange and maintain them.

For most homes, several smoke alarms will be needed. The ceiling is the best position to put a fire alarm but we have to make sure the alarm is at least 4 inches away from the wall. Near every bedroom, it’s recommended to have a smoke detector, but the most important place to put the alarm in the context of our country is, in the kitchen as most of our fire hazards start from the kitchen. But we have to make sure the alarm is set afar from the stove, otherwise general cooking smoke might trigger the alarm.

3 Rule of Maintenance

Testing: Test the efficacy of the smoke alarm every month.

Cleaning: Clean your smoke alarms every week as dust might decrease the effectiveness of the alarms.

Changing: Every smoke alarm must be changed every 10 years as per the recommendation of fire experts.

Where to find

From only 700 BDT to 100000 BDT you can find smoke alarms according to your budget and need. Make sure to have a pre-booked electrician or it might come with the fire safety package.

We can’t control every little phenomenon in our lives but what we can do is to try to make our lives a little safer than the previous day. Overlooking fire safety is surely a fault in our mindset that we need to fix as soon as possible. With smoke detectors and other safety measures, we can prevent a catastrophe and save countless lives. Let’s take action today for a safer tomorrow.