Pete Hypes
They Really Do Work
By
Jul 9, 2008 - 10:23:13 AM

Last day, Engine 14 got dispatched to an apartment complex in our district for the smell of smoke in the area, with smoke alarms activating. On arrival, Engine 14 had a smell of something burning, and smoke alarms going off in one apartment. Other building residents stated that the alarm had been going off for about an hour. The engine officer made the decision to force the door, since no one would come to the door. Once opened, the engine crew found smoke banked down to the floor throughout the apartment, and no one home. The cause of the smoke was that food had been placed in the oven, and the oven was turned on high. The oven was turned off, and the truck crew was called for ventilation.

This incident could have gone a lot differently, had a fire started from all of this. 3.5 out of every ten residential fires are caused by unattended cooking. This fire came in between midnight and 1 a.m., when most people are sleeping. A fire in this particular complex could have devastating results. The fire apartment was on the second floor, with apartments above this one. If everyone did get out safely, there still would have been numerous families with very small children left homeless, and probably with no renter’s insurance.

Even though there was no one home, the smoke alarms did exactly what they were designed to do: to activate when smoke was detected. One word of advice would be for other building occupants, when you hear someone else’s smoke alarm going off, check to see if someone is home and call 911. There was plenty of time in the hour that the smoke alarm was heard by others for a fire to get started, before 911 was notified.

When the occupant of the fire apartment got home, she immediately stated that she had turned her oven off. The evidence stated otherwise, with a burned dish of some indiscernible type of meat, smoke alarms going off, smoke banked down to the floor, the oven dial on high, and everything around the oven red hot. As I have said over and over again, if you live in a multi-family dwelling, you must have renter’s insurance. I spoke with a leasing agent recently who stated that their apartment rental policy is that every renter will be required to have $300,000 of liability insurance. They had to adopt this policy due to the apartment complex that she managed in another part of the state. In that complex they had experienced six or nine fires, with two buildings being burnt to the ground. All were caused by unattended cooking. You realize, of course, that $300,000 of liability insurance is a Band-Aid placed on a very real problem in our society. Until we get to the source of the problem, and that is our careless and complacent practices when cooking, we will always be coming up with very expensive Band-Aids. But until then, check your smoke alarms because “they really do work!”

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