Households have had the benefit of fire detection since as early as the 1870s, when inventor William B. Watkins’ heat-sensing alarm system made it possible to automatically send a telegraph to the fire station when the temperature in a home exceeded a specified threshold. Later, fire detection capabilities improved with the development of commercial smoke detectors in the 1960s. Read more
The first fire departments were formed more than 200 years ago. Unlike the high tech equipment wielding community heroes they are today, the first fire fighters were town and community members organized into roving brigades. They walked through their home towns on scheduled shifts, carrying bells and whistles they could ring or blow to call for assistance when they spotted a fire. While undoubtedly helpful for town safety, this system had serious limitations because the location of the manually sounded alarms could not easily be traced in a timely manner. Read more
1. Keep your smoke detectors in working order: Less than 20 percent of fire-related deaths occur in buildings with smoke detectors because they are the fastest and most accurate fire detection devices. Make sure you have at least one smoke detector on each floor of your house and one outside the door of each bedroom. You should test your detectors once every month and change the batteries twice a year. Read more
When you look at your family, and your home, you know you want them to be safe, always out of harm’s way. When you leave for work, you expect to come back to a smiling family, and to a home that is secure. But as they say, hope is not a strategy. The growing crime rates across cities reflect the bitter reality. Many people overlook, ignore, and underestimate the need of taking appropriate home security measures. A burglary or theft can lead to devastating consequences, both emotionally and financially. While the financial loss may be recoverable, the trauma inflicted on your family and yourself may last forever. So take a minute and think about this; is this loss worth the risk?