11-05-16 Firefighters and Red Cross Volunteers Install Free Smoke Alarms

Chattanooga Fire Marshal Beau Matlock encourages everyone to change the batteries in their smoke alarms at least once each year. "An easy way to remember is to change your batteries when you change your clocks," said Matlock. "A working smoke alarm is your first line of defense in the event a fire breaks out in your home. Test your alarms monthly to confirm they work, and make sure everyone knows what to do when the alarm sounds."

This smoke alarm distribution event covered about 250 homes in the North Chattanooga area. Matlock said their goal was to install about 80 smoke alarms.

Facts and figures about smoke alarms

In 2009-2013, smoke alarms sounded in more than half (53%) of the home fires reported to U.S. fire departments.Three of every five home fire deaths resulted from fires in homes with no smoke alarms (38%) or no working smoke alarms (21%).No smoke alarms were present in almost two out of every five (38%) home fire deaths. The death rate per 100 reported home fires was more than twice as high in homes that did not have any working smoke alarms compared to the rate in homes with working smoke alarms (1.18 deaths vs. 0.53 deaths per 100 fires).In fires in which the smoke alarms were present but did not operate, almost half (46%) of the smoke alarms had missing or disconnected batteries. Dead batteries caused one-quarter (24%) of the smoke alarm failures.

Source: NFPA's "Smoke Alarms in U.S. Home Fires" report, September 2015