I hate it when they do that in the MIDDLE OF THE NITE!

Thanks for the reminder. Five people just died in a house fire here in my area. They can't tell if the detectors were working, but they did find two of them.

Funny story - I was working from home one day 'cause I had fractured my knee. There had already been a 2hr teleconference meeting, and the powers that be thougt we needed another one with the very highest of the higher ups. As soon as I dialed in, the dead battery reminder started - very loud chirp, chirp, chirp. So, had the guy under the pres, and everyon between me, and him, listening to my smoke detecter going crazy. I couldn't get up very easily because of my knee, so it just did its thing through the whole meeting. No one said anything, but they had to have heard it - it was right outside the doorway of the small room that I was in!! Since I couldn't get up there because of my knee, I had to listen to that thing for two days, until someone could come by to help!! Oh well, at least I knew to change the batteries.

Mine kept either chirping or going off whenever I used the broiler,so I stood on a step stool and ripped that darn thing down. Yes, I'll get another one that works properly.

We bought new detectors about six weeks ago. I wrote with a sharpie right on the new one on the main floor, the date we bought it so we know in one year to replace the batteries. All three smoke detectors have carbon monoxide detectors in them too.

We always check batteries with the time change.

The batteries in your detectors and some phones should be changed twice a year. Iused to do it with the change of daylight saving time. However, after the fall change date was lengthened by one month, this upset the balance of time, so I change the batteries in the spring when the change to DST begins and add a reminder in my personal calendar to change batteries six months later.

About phones: Many table phones that show and/or records the time have a backup battery for the clock. It had been so long since I had changed the battery in out answering phone, that I had forgoten it had a battery. Then, last week, the receiver went dead. The phone would ring, but the handset was silent. We though the phone had failed, and then thought to look for the battery. Sure enough, it had one and it was very old - maybe the original that came with the phone. Changed the battery and all functions returned. We nearly started out of the house to buy a new phone! LOL. I've got to add the phone the my calendar reminder.

Thanks for the reminder - I just bought batteries!

This is a good post, Janie, fire safety is so important!

Did you know- you should replace the entire smoke detector about every 10 years or so? It's almost time for me to do that again, we've been in this house for 19 years now and I've replaced them once already. Apparently their sensitivity to particles lessens over time and can make them slower to react to smoke.

If you have fire extinguishers, you should be tipping and shaking them occasionally, too, to keep the stuff inside them nice and loose and fluffy. We have at least one on every floor (we use our wood stove a lot) and one in each vehicle. And an escape ladder under the guest room bed, it's on the 3rd floor.

My doctors home burned last month. Here's their story.

Dr. Cheryl MacDonald can attest to the importance of a smoke detector.

In October, she bought one during Fire Prevention Week. On Nov. 1 - her son, Nathans birthday - her father-in-law installed the detector in her home at Ginger Woods near Valley.

Then between 12:15 a.m. and 12:30 a.m. on Dec. 6, that smoke alarm went off.

"We were in bed and there was no flame at the time. We looked around and the smoke was getting thicker," she said.

So MacDonald and her husband, Shawn, gathered their children, Nathan, 9, Rachel, 6, and Dylan, 4, and headed toward the door.

Still seeing no flames - and knowing their barefooted children were in pajamas - they quickly grabbed vehicle keys and coats before going out into the cold.

Their 10-year-old golden retriever, Dawson, was out of the door as soon as it was opened.

The MacDonalds then piled into their vehicles, parked in the driveway, and were backing out when the dining room burst into flames.

"The kids did see that," she said.

The couple went a neighborÂs house next door and the children stayed with them.

"My husband and I were back in the yard trying to assist the emergency responders," she said.

Damage was severe.

"The worst of the damage is in the dining room and we had smoke and heat damage throughout most of the house," she said. "TheyÂre going to have to gut the house."

The cause of the fire has not been determined.

"We know it was in the dining room. The only candle in the room had plastic on it and had never been burned. Nothing was plugged in. ItÂs truly a puzzle," she said.

That Saturday, restoration companies came out. Certain pieces of furniture, some dishes, clothes and photos may be able to be restored.

"WeÂre in the midst of that process," she said.

For now, MacDonald urges others to check their smoke alarms and to make sure theyÂre working. TheyÂd already had a smoke detector upstairs, but the one more recently installed downstairs bought them time, she said.

Besides appreciating that smoke detector, MacDonald is grateful for the outpouring of community support.

"I couldnÂt even begin to tell you all the things people have helped us with," she said. "I could never thank people enough."

Their church, St. MarkÂs Lutheran Church in Valley, in conjunction with Ginger Woods neighbors set up an account at First Nebraska Bank in Valley. Bethany Lutheran Preschool, where Dylan attends, collected toys for the children. Staff and teachers at D.C. West Elementary School in Valley, where the older children attend, have given gifts to the family.

MacDonald, who has been a family practice physician at Methodist Physicians Clinic in Valley since August 2000, has seen an outpouring of support from patients as well.

Patients have brought cards, supplies and gifts of money.

And theyÂve supplied something else: hugs.

At this point, the MacDonalds are staying at a friendÂs lake house. That is a temporary situation. MacDonald estimates it will take six months or longer before their house is ready.

But they plan to stay in the same spot at the lake. They want to rebuild.

Some things can never be replaced.

"The hardest part is going through things that had nothing to do with money that you canÂt save. Letters that are precious. Pictures," she said.

Yet she keeps things in perspective.

"ItÂs sad to know itÂs gone, but you go back and look at the things you have and you know thatÂs more important," she said. "I walked out with my children in hand and my husband - and the bonus was that the dog walked across the yard and was fine. I told the kids that everything else is just stuff."

Good Post!!! We have three S-detectors in our small apt. I change two of them when they start to churp. The third is hard-wired in to the electrical system. I posted about this before, but it still irks me. When DH chsnged the batteries, he would put the old battery in the battery box because "there might be some life left in it so we could use it in something else!!" I had no way to test them, to tell which was the used or new, took both the 9 volt batteries and put them in the re=cycle bin and bought all new, and told him to please let me change the s-detectors from now on. Geeesh, some times he is toooo thrifty. LOL Dottie

I have given all my kids smoke detectors and fire extinguishers for gifts at holiday time. They probably think I am nuts, but it means they have they have a chance to be as safe as I can make them.

I have also bought friends the same if I noticed they did not have them in their home. Crazy? Probably, but my friends also mean a lot to me.

My dad lived through a fire when his house was burnt to the ground when he was a kid. It was hot out that night and he and his folks were sleeping on the porch. It saved their lives, and probably this story makes me over protective from fire safety to everyone I know.

Trin

DH and I just discussed a week ago that we need to move our detector and buy another one. Thanks for the reminder. (Can ya remind me again in a few weeks? LOL!)