Seasonal Plea for Smoke Alarms & E-Cigarette Trials

sdsester · 12-19-2011, 09:53 AM

On Saturday the 10th, my neighbor fell asleep on his sofa while smoking and lit the sofa and ultimately himself on fire. Hopefully he never woke up because he had beyond third degree burns to 100 percent of his body. His unit, a lovely corner one bedroom was totally destroyed and there is extensive smoke damage to the hallway walls and carpeting. Right now nothing is happening while insurance issues get battled out. It smells a bet better this week but like all kinds of things and human flesh burned in a fire.

He disabled both the central and battery backup smoke alarms in his unit or things might not have been so bad. It was not until the units in the detectors triggered and people saw flames from the street that Chicago Fire was called.

Please, when you are out buying batteries for toys and electronics, pick up as many 9V as you need and check your detectors. And don't disable them. You might forget to hook them back up or but the batteries back. All you have to do to stop them from screaming is contain the source of the smoke and fan some fresh air past the sensors. Waving a magazine will work.

And do keep lots of water in the bucket for the Christmas tree if you have a live one! And if you are a smoker? Why not try the electronic cigarettes? I here they take getting used to but you can get cartridges in flavors and different nicotine doses. Once you invest in the starter kit, they work out to about $2.50 a pack from one of the companies smoking friends of mine use.

CoconutPete · 12-19-2011, 10:54 AM

Fell asleep while smoking and lit himself on fire........ Sounds like Darwin filled his quote for the day.

Hopefully your place is going to be OK. Call me cynical but I can't feel bad for the dude who "torched himself".

creeper · 12-19-2011, 06:53 PM

A tragic situation...My condolences on your loss

gma2rjc · 12-19-2011, 08:45 PM

I hope he didn't suffer too much.

It could happen to anyone. Not necessarily smoking in bed, but starting dinner and laying down on the couch "to rest for a minute while dinner cooks". Or it could be someone who throws a load of laundry in the dryer, puts the kids to bed and falls asleep reading them a story.... while the buildup of dryer lint catches fire.

Most of the house fire stories on the news end with, "there were no batteries in the smoke detector" or "there were no smoke detectors in the house".

matt151617 · 12-20-2011, 05:16 PM

Batteries are cheap, especially on Amazon. So are smoke detectors. Put an extra one up, you can't have too many.

Also replace the battery in your carbon monoxide alarm and check it's operation, another silent killer.

operagost · 12-21-2011, 03:50 PM

When you install smoke detectors-- especially ionizers-- mark the date on it and replace it after 10 years. After 10 years, they almost all stop working.