Louisiana is taking part in National Fire Prevention Week through this Saturday. Ashley Rodrique with the State Fire Marshal’s Office says the theme this year is to “Learn the Sounds of Fire Safety”, such as when a smoke alarm goes off. “That is a set of three loud beeps”, denoting that there is smoke and/or fire in your home and that you need to get out, call 9-1-1 and stay out. Statistics from 2020 show there were 79 fire-related deaths and only about a dozen structures had working smoke alarms.
As Louisiana marks National Fire Prevention Week, Rodrigue also says the State Fire Marshal’s Office is stressing that residents have a working carbon monoxide detector in the home, noting that the fumes are odorless. She says, “you will not smell it, you will not know that something is wrong until you start feeling ill but if you’re asleep you’ll never feel ill, you just won’t wake up.”
She says a carbon monoxide alarm involves four continuous loud beeps and that you should open doors and windows, leave your residence and call 911. The improper placement of generators during hurricanes or power outages has been among the issues involving carbon monoxide poisoning, sometimes resulting in deaths. Rodrique notes that’s just one of the reasons to have an operating CO alarm in your home. “It can be a dryer. It can be a hot water heater. Or, it can be a generator just not in the proper place,” according to Rodrique.
Some CO alarms are combined with smoke alarms and it’s important to keep them working properly, with a single chirp every 30 to 60 seconds meaning the battery needs to be changed and that the alarms need to be changed every ten years.
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