Check your smoke alarms
Only working smoke alarms save lives.
Fires can move very fast. We have seen a small fire can spread to an entire room in minutes.
Without a smoke alarm a fire is more likely to damage or destroy your property. It is also more likely to cause serious injury or death. When you are asleep you lose your sense of smell. A working smoke alarm will wake you if there is smoke.
Important checklist
- It only takes a few minutes to check your smoke alarms, and it could help keep your family safe. Don’t wait—check them today.
- Smoke alarms help keep you safe from fires—but only if they work, that is why it is really important to check them often.
- You should press the test button once a month to make sure it beeps. If it doesn’t, it might need new batteries, or it could be time to get a new alarm.
- Batteries should be changed at least once a year, even if the alarm says it has a long-life battery.
- If your smoke alarm is more than 10 years old, it should be replaced, smoke alarms have a 10-year working life from date of manufacture and might not work well anymore.
Consider Wireless Interconnected Smoke Alarms
There are new smoke alarms you can get that are even safer, called Wireless Interconnected Alarms.
They signal each other—so if one alarm goes off, all the alarms in the house go off.
This means everyone in your home will hear the alarm right away, even if they’re in a different room or on another floor.
Resources
Read more information at the Fire Rescue Victoria website: